Saboteurs fail Museveni, farmer tells EU envoys

A model farmer in Western Division in Kapchorwa Municipality in Kapchorwa District has said President Museveni is surrounded by saboteurs, who have failed his efforts to eradicate household poverty in the country.
Mr Joel Cherop, a social impact entrepreneur and executive of Atari River Integrated Irrigation Initiative, was speaking during a visit to his farm in Kapenguria Parish by the EU delegation on Wednesday.
“Our President, however much he will try, he will not succeed in eradicating poverty in this country because of the saboteurs who only want to enrich themselves but not to improve the lives of ordinary Ugandans,” he said.
Mr Cherop, who was in 2017 awarded as the most impactful young entrepreneur in Africa in the Tony Elumelu category in Lagos, Nigeria, said despite the government injecting billions in Operation Wealth Creation (OWC) and other projects, there is hardly any tangible impact on the grassroots.
“The President is blindfolded to think that people are being lifted out of poverty, which is not true,” he said.
He said President Museveni should launch an investigation into the projects before it is too late.
“Farmers are supplied with lousy seeds, which do not germinate but government officials are not bothered,” he said.
He said government should instead devote resources towards tailor-made trainings through a hand-holding apprenticeship mode.
“This will enable create an environment for the young people to commercialise agriculture through market responsive skills with main focus on high value horticulture production for job, employment and wealth creation,” he said.
He said farmers should be offered technical agricultural education through practical boot camps to motivate them to embrace farming as business.
The Kapchorwa Resident District Commissioner (RDC) Ms Emma Rose Cherukut, however, said government projects have helped in boosting household income.
“A lot of money has been injected in boosting household income and the results are visible in every village. People have money in their pockets now,” she said.
The EU delegation is currently in eastern region for the four-day retreat, which will end tomorrow.
The retreat is aimed at tracking progress on infrastructural and socio-economic projects that are funded by the EU and member states.
The Netherlands ambassador, Mr Henk Jan Bakker, described Mr Cherop as a committed professional farmer, who has worked to lift the standards of youth commercial farming.
Mr Bakker said there is also need to improve the state of feeder roads to ease transportation of produce.