Farmers stuck with 40 million tea seedlings
Frank Byaruhanga, the chairperson for South-Western Tea Nursery Bed Operators and Tea Farmers displays copies of the correspondences with different government departments during a meeting recenly. PHOTO BY ROBERT MUHEREZA.
About 300 tea nursery bed operators and tea growers in Kanungu District are stranded with about 40 million tea seedlings. The farmers accuse the district chief administrative offer Chrizestom Kayise, of failing to constitute a verification team to ascertain the number of tea seedlings they have planted so that government can pay them.
President Museveni launched tea growing in Kanungu District in 2008 after local leaders convinced him that it was the only enterprise that can boost their revenues. In turn, he pledged government commitment to buy all the tea seedlings and supply them to willing farmers.
Last week, the Kanungu District chairperson Josephine Kastya together with the Chairman South Western Regional Tea Nursery Bed Operators and Tea Growers Assocication, Frank Byaruhanga convened a meeting at the district council hall where nursery bed operators demanded for disciplinary action against the CAO.
“We are stuck with about 40 million seedlings valued at Shs18b since each seedling costs Shs450 because the district chief administrative officer has refused to constitute a verification team so that we can get paid. We are now counting losses of about Shs9bn because most of the seedlings have dried up since farmers have no money to buy agro inputs to spray them and even paying workers to remove grass from the tea gardens,” Byaruhanga said.
“The National Agriculture Advisory Services executive director Dr Samuel Mugasi on March 1 issued a letter to Mr Kayise requesting him to verify the tea seedlings planted before April 7 but to date no verification has been done,” Byaruhanga lamented.
Byaruhanga appealed to the President to prevail over civil servants that frustrate the tea project because such cases are also in Kigezi and Ankole regions. He also alleged that some officials from the Naads secretariat and Ministry of Agriculture are using some civil servants in the region to frustrate the tea project that has resulted into tea farmers selling seedling at Shs80 instead of the government price of Shs450.
Eliab Begumya, the deputy chief administrative officer for Kanungu District said the verification of all the tea seedlings was done in March but the results were contested by the farmers and an independent verification team has been instituted to re-do the work.
The Kanungu District chairperson Katsya urged tea farmers to remain calm.
