Monitor Farm Clinic gets Shs100m boost
Left to right: MPL managing director Tony Glencross, director of research at Mbarara Zonal Agricultural Research Institute, Dr Khalid Kirunda, Heifer International country director William Matovu and aBi Trust Group CEO Josephine Mukumbya in Kampala yesterday. PHOTO BY STEPHEN OTAGE
KAMPALA- Seeds of Gold, an agricultural magazine in Saturday Monitor, yesterday received a boost of Shs100m ahead of its Farm Clinic show in Western Uganda at the end of this month.
The Shs100m boost is also expected to aid other planned farm clinics in other regions of the country
The Shs100m boost was injected into the Seeds of Gold by Agribusiness Initiative Trust (aBI-Trust).
During the handover of the money yesterday, Ms Josephine Mukumbya, the group chief executive officer of aBI-Trust, commended the Seeds of Gold farm clinics for disseminating agriculture information to farmers. She said the farm clinics have enabled farmers improve their productivity.
Farm clinic benefits
Ms Mukumbya said: “The partnership with Monitor Publications is based on their strategic objective of strengthening Uganda’s competitiveness to process agricultural products and facilitate increased access to financial services within the agricultural value chain.”
Mr Tony Glencross, the Managing Director of Monitor Publications Ltd, said: “We are not just here to inform but give back to society, especially with the Seeds of Gold to educate farmers that agriculture is a crucial element for development of the country by extending to them knowledge.”
Speaking at the same handover ceremony, Dr Halid Kirunda, the director of research at Mbarara Zonal Agricultural Research Institute that will host this month’s Seeds of Gold Farm Clinic on Saturday, May 26, said as a research institute, they have developed several technologies which are relevant to farmers.
He explained that the public’s absorption of such developed technologies is limited by lack of knowledge about them.
Dr Kirunda said the farm clinics are instrumental in disseminating such information to farmers.
“We are excited that we shall be having an interface with a large group of farmers. NARO produces technology but only 15 per cent reaches the farmers and those use only 28 per cent of its production capacity,” he said.
Mr William Matovu, the country director of Heifer International, one of the partners of the farm clinic, attributed the success of some of the farmers to the new networks and partnerships acquired from the clinics.
He further said the farm clinics have created 36,000 small holder farmers with secure and sustainable livelihoods which are providing them with increased income to create wealth through value addition.
