German investors look to boost Uganda’s agriculture productivity
Ms Leweke von Hoff (2nd R), the head of corporate social responsibility at Amatheon Agri, shows Agriculture minister Tress Bucyanayandi (R) what the firms does, as other officials look on. courtesy PHOTO.
What you need to know:
Group wants to add value to crop and livestock production.
Entebbe
In a bid to promote private sector investment in the agricultural sector, the government, through the sector line ministry, is putting in place support mechanisms to foster increases in production and productivity.
This was disclosed by Agriculture minister Tress Bucyanayandi while meeting senior officials from Amatheon Agri at his offices in Entebbe. Amatheon Agri is a German- agribusiness and food company investing in Ugandan agriculture and agribusiness.
The officials led by director of farming Herwig Tilly, head of corporate social responsibility Leweke von Hoff and Mr Thomas Rowles Nicholson, the Amatheon Agri-Uganda Ltd farm manager, discussed issues relating to the agricultural sector as well as Amatheon’s plans and prospects in Uganda.
Mr Bucyanayandi also shared the sector priorities stating that Amatheon’s investment in the sector is timely since it comes as the ministry is implementing the Agriculture Chapter of the National Development Plan (NDP 2010-2015); which is also the Agriculture Development Strategy and Investment Plan.
He explained that the plan aims at promoting production and productivity of national priority commodities and key strategic high value commodities, creating an enabling environment for the private sector to invest in agriculture, promoting value addition and strengthening the institutional capacity and linkages of key public sector agriculture agencies.
He said: “Promotion of agricultural production and productivity is among the leading priorities of government. We are glad that Amatheon has chosen to invest in Uganda because we know that foreign investment in agriculture can have a positive impact on host countries.”
Mr Tilly explained that Amatheon’s Ugandan plans comprised rainfed growing of crops such as maize, soya beans, sunflower, rice and sorghum. On top of applying double cropping methods and state-of-the-art farming technology to attain best production levels, the company is also looking into value addition and livestock production.
What amatheon does
In Sub-Saharan Africa Amatheon is also active in Zambia and Zimbabwe. The company stands for high quality products and has an overall workforce of over 500 people throughout Africa. It produces a wide range of crops alongside livestock operations.
