Seeds of Gold Farm Clinic heads to eastern region
Left-Right: The Director of Bunginyanya Zardi, Dr Lawrence Owere, the Managing Director of Nation Media Group- Uganda, Mr Tony Glencross, and the Head of Disbursement and Recovery Agricultural Credit Facility at BoU, Ms Winnie Muliisa, with a dummy cheque at the launch of 18th edition of Seeds of Gold Farm Clinic in Kampala yesterday. PHOTO BY SHABIBAH NAKIRIGYA
Kampala- The Managing Director of Nation Media Group-Uganda, Mr Tony Glencross, has said the Seeds of Gold Farm Clinic will be extended to all farming communities across the country next year, starting with the West Nile sub-region.
Mr Glencross said the decision was informed by the clinic’s continued impact on farmers.
He noted that for the last seven years, the farm clinic has helped in addressing challenges of climate change as it brings farmers and agricultural scientists together.
“The 2019 Seeds of Gold Farm Clinic has so far been held in four regions; south west in Hoima and Mbarara; south Buganda in Masaka and Mukono; and Lira in northern Uganda. Next year, we are going to reach out to farmers in West Nile sub-region,” he said yesterday.
Mr Glencross was speaking at the launch of the 18th Seeds of Gold Farm Clinic, which will be held at Bunginyanya Zonal Agricultural Research and Development Institute (Zardi) in Bulengeni, eastern Uganda on December 7.
The farm clinic will be held under the theme ‘Climate Smart Farming’ and will cover crops such as wheat, barley, maize, coffee, Irish potatoes, bananas, dairy farming and fisheries.
Mr Glencross also hailed Bank of Uganda (BoU) and the National Agricultural Research Organisation (Naro) for supporting the farm clinic.
“At Nation Media Group, we believe in adding value to society and we know that agriculture is the back bone of the economy. We will continuously inform and educate our readers through the Seeds of Gold Magazine and the programme on NTV. We thank our funders Bank of Uganda and the entire Naro team,” he added.
The director of Buginyanya Zardi, Dr Lawrence Owere, said Naro has been faced with the challenge of disseminating information about its research initiatives to the public and the farm clinic comes in handy.
The head of disbursement and recovery, Agricultural Credit Facility at BoU, Ms Winnie Mulisa, said reaching out to farmers is part of central bank’s strategy of transforming agriculture from subsistence to commercial. “As a bank, we want the farmers to transform from substance agriculture to commercial farming through providing agricultural funds in forms of loans in order to boost their initiatives. This can only be possible by teaming up with the Nation Media Group and Naro to provide the expertise,” she noted.
