Frustration as government fails to pay farmers for tea seedlings

Kabale.

Tea farmers in Kigezi and Ankole sub-regions are frustrated over government’s failure to pay for tea seedlings supplied .
Some farmers have abandoned their homes for fear of being arrested over unpaid bank loans while others have lost their properties to money lenders.
Several farmers blame government for failing to pay them Shs100 billion for the seedlings they supplied to it under the new tea project.
The chairperson for the South Western regional, Tea Nursery Bed Operators and growers, Mr Frank Byaruhanga, on Sunday said government has not paid Shs55 billion for tea seedlings supplied for the last three years and those currently in different nursery beds in the region worth Shs45 billion.
“Tea farmers in the region are completely devastated because the government has not honoured its commitment of paying them. Some properties of tea farmers have been attached and sold. We ask President Museveni to urgently intervene because all our efforts have been frustrated,” Mr Byaruhanga said.
Tea growing in Kigezi sub-region was launched by President Museveni in 2008 with a pledge from government to buy tea seedlings from private nursery bed operators and distribute them to farmers free of charge as one way of increasing household incomes.
In 2013, the President wrote to then minister for Agriculture, Mr Tress Buchanayandi, okaying the distribution of more tea seedlings to the farmers in Kisoro District and the entire Kigezi sub-region through the National Agricultural Advisory Services (Naads), a government programme in partnership with Mr James Musinguzi Garuga.
The President also asked the minister to examine the idea of each district in the sub region having its own nursery beds in future.
On November 22, 2016, the Principal Private Secretary to the President, Ms Molly Kamukama, wrote to the permanent secretary of Ministry of Agriculture in regard to the President’s directive over payment for the tea seedlings.
Ms Kamukama said the President directed that Naads should make commitments to pay for the tea seedlings and also provide for administrative costs of loading and transporting the tea seedlings to farmers.
“If it was not President Museveni’s directive, hundreds of people in Ankole and Kigezi regions would not have risked staking their properties in commercial banks to get loans to invest in the tea growing project. We need to meet President Museveni over this matter,” Mr Philip Zikampereza, the chairman of Kabale District tea nursery bed operators, said.
Besides non-payment, most of the tea seedlings grown in Ankole and Kigezi sub regions, dried up due to the prolonged dry season leaving farmers counting losses.
Mr Byaruhanga said if the farmers had been paid, they would have irrigated the tea gardens to avoid drying up.
He said following the long dry spell, key stakeholders have engaged the Ministry of Agriculture to have the gardens replanted in vain. “We informed the Ministry of Agriculture and adopted a report to find the measures on how we can fill the gap but the response has been so slow. The seedlings in the nurseries have overgrown that they can’t be planted,” Mr Byaruhanga said.
Mr James Tinkamanyire, the Bwongyera Sub-county chairperson in Ntungamo District and a tea farmer, says at least 95 per cent of the tea seedlings he had planted dried up.
The Ntungamo District head of Operation Wealth Creation(OWC), Brig John Tumwebaze, said out 800,000 tea seedlings planted by farmers in the district, less than 4,500 survived. He however noted that lack of proper feasibility study on tea growing in the sub region is affecting the project.
The State Minister for Economic Monitoring in the Presidents office, Dr Kasirivu Atwooki, on Wednesday said he was aware of the grievances but referred us to the Minister of Agriculture.
The Minister of Agriculture, Mr Vincent Ssempijja, said his ministry is looking for the money to pay for the seedlings. “We are going to procure all the seedlings and pay the farmers all their money. I am coming to Kigezi very soon to plead with the tea farmers so that they can be patient,” he said.
“Government is committed to support the tea growing enterprise in that area and farmers should not be frustrated at all,” the minister added.