Farmers have been asked to make use of funds disbursed through Parish Development Model (PDM) savings and credit cooperative organisations to purchase agro-inputs as they prepare for the next planting season.
The call was made by the commissioner in charge of agriculture extension and skills management in the agriculture ministry, Dr Henry Nakelet Opolot.
He is also the coordinator of the Agriculture Cluster Development Project that has been giving farmers subsidised inputs.
Opolot’s advice follows calls from farmers that have been receiving subsided inputs through the project but to date, they haven’t been contacted by the agriculture ministry for the same.
Under the project, farmers have been receiving a subsidised package of agro-inputs including fertilisers, seed, pesticides, herbicides, tarpaulins and special airtight storage bags.
He however cautioned that before farmers can access the funds, they should be re-trained and well prepared so as to make efficient use of the funds.
The Parish Development Model was launched by President Yoweri Museveni in 2022 in a bid to improve household incomes, enable inclusive, sustainable and balanced socio-economic transformation among others.
To kickstart the project, the finance ministry set aside some funds where each parish is expected to receive sh100m to be disbursed through. And the target is to uplift the 3.5million households that are still in subsistence farming to commercial agriculture.
Although some legislators argue that the funds are still not accessible to farmers, PDM technical advisor Edward Katende said in an interview with New Vision that the funds will be released once they are sure that beneficiaries are ready.
“We want to prevent past incidences where farmers would access funds for agriculture and then divert them. We shall first consider farmer groups or farmers who have already prepared their gardens and are only waiting for the money to purchase inputs and related expenses,” said Katende.
Source: New Vision