Museveni commissions gateway road to diary-rich Greater Bushenyi

President Museveni has on his second day in Ankole sub-region today, commissioned the 12.32 km (Kashenyi - Mitooma -11.52km and Kitabi Seminary Access -0.8km before meeting leaders from greater Bushenyi as part of his campaign trail.

Constructed by the Chongqing International Construction Corporation (CICO), the road, stretching from Kashenyi along the Ishaka – Kagamba road to Mitooma district headquarters, was fully funded by Government of Uganda to a tune of Shs49.199 billion.

Works on the project commenced on January 31, 2017 and was substantially completed on 16 January 2019. Defects Liability Period ended in January 2020 after which a completion certificate was issued, according to UNRA.

The road is expected to open up and ease transport within the Greater Bushenyi districts of Mitooma, Rubirizi, Sheema and Bunyaruguru.

The area is an agricultural resource for the country, with the sector employing 86.7 percent of the district population. A sizeable number of homes in Greater Bushenyi are involved in growing commercial crops like coffee, tea, sweet bananas and matooke, among others.

The area is a major tea producer in the country with Bushenyi District alone hosting four tea processing factories.  These include Global quality tea factory, Igara grower’s tea factory, Butare Igara tea factory and Kyamuhunga Tea Factory. These factories employ hundreds of youth from the area.

Dairy farming for milk production is widely practiced on both subsistence and commercial scales in Bushenyi District with many farmers raising Hybrid cattle. The hybrids produce more milk per animal and yield more beef per carcass and therefore are more profitable than the local breeds.

To support farmers in efforts to increase their productivity all year round, government has invested in a number of irrigation systems which include constriction of the Bushenyi Demonstration Small scale Irrigation scheme in Nyakabirizi Division in Bushenyi District (8 acres) benefitting 61 farmers.

Government has also undertaken feasibility studies and designed small-scale irrigation systems of 5 – 20 ha each using government funding in the Districts of Kiruhura, Isingiro, Ntungamo, Bushenyi, Sheema, Mbarara, Rubirizi and Buhweju.