We are ready to promote Monitor Farm Clinic - government
Carol Lamunu, a student of Gayaza High School, inspects a cow during the Monitor Farm Clinic last last year. File photo
What you need to know:
Partnership The minister says the Farm Clinic is in line with 10-year skilling Uganda Plan.
Kampala. The Ministry of Education has promised to work together with the Ministry of Agriculture and The Monitor Publications Ltd to market the upcoming Farm Clinic countrywide.
Speaking on the sidelines of the school farm camp at Gayaza High School last Saturday, Dr Rose Nassali Lukwago, the education ministry Permanent Secretary, said together with the Ministry of Agriculture, they are ready to partner in the forthcoming Farm Clinic since it is in line with the 10-year skilling Uganda Plan that they have started implementing.
“We encourage partners to come on board in implementing it. You can see what is happening here with AVSI and the Food Agriculture Organisation, and it is such skills which are emphasised, “she said.
Asked what happens to farmers in need of similar training but are out of school, she said teaching and learning does not end in the enclosed school settings but there are other initiatives such as the Monitor Farm Clinic, which her Ministry and that of Agriculture have agreed to support as government if contacted.
“As you can see here, this knowledge will not end with these students, it will have a ripple effect if they take it out to the communities and if invited by the Monitor publications, we are ready to partner to promote the Farm Clinic,” she said.
Hans Peter Van Der Woude, the head of cooperation in the Netherlands Embassy, who opened the school camp sponsored by AVSI International and the Food and Agriculture Organisation FAO, and the Netherlands Embassy, said agricultural productivity as the future of Uganda’s economic development, needs to be raised and more work has to be done in the agricultural value chain to increase and to promote export of agricultural products.
“Netherlands has the highest productivity in agriculture and we are happy to work with organisations such as AVSI which strengthen the commercial side of agriculture,” he said.
He added: “The fact that you have three seasons in a year makes Uganda unique and you can have more jobs in agriculture compared to oil and gas.”
