President Museveni waves to leaders of Bukedi and Bugisu during his wealth creation tour at Kamuge playground, Pallisa District on November 10, 2024. PHOTO/MUDANGHA KOLYANGHA
In July 2022, President Museveni and the other members of the Central Executive Committee (CEC) of the National Resistance Movement (NRM), sitting at State House Entebbe, received a briefing from the Parish Development Model (PDM) Secretariat led by Prime Minister Robinah Nabbanja, minister of Local Government Raphael Magyezi and national coordinator of PDM Dennis Galabuzi Ssozi.
In her briefing, Ms Nabbanja said: “I have been to seven districts in Busoga. These people rent out their land at a cost of Shs500,000 per acre for five years and they don’t have land. You see sugarcane plantations in front of their homes and those plantations are not theirs. They leased land and they are stuck. To me, this programme (PDM) is a saviour because they can go for other enterprises like piggery, chicken and the like, but need guidance in that.”
Reacting to the concerns raised by Ms Nabbanja about the sugarcane growing and poverty levels in Busoga Sub-region, President Museveni said: “For Busoga, I think I will have to go there and have a conference. We shall have to discuss how to liberate the slaves now because the land has been taken by the sugar growers. They should get out of those contracts, regain their land and do what other people are doing in other parts of the country.”
The above promise by President Museveni was generally welcomed by both leaders and locals in Busoga. We viewed it as a starting point for laying a grand strategy towards kicking the biting poverty out of Busoga.
It is unfortunate that figures released by the Uganda Bureau of Statistics (Ubos) in 2020 indicated that Busoga had 1.2 million poor persons, of which 0.4 million were living in poverty or household food insecurity because many farmers had converted their arable land meant for food production for sugarcane growing.
The anti-poverty conference we are awaiting can redeem our people in making strategic choices that will enhance household income and wealth creation. Also expected from the anti-poverty conference is efforts to jumpstart PDM in Busoga.
Under the PDM, households who own four acres of land or less are supported in carrying out intensive farming such as zero grazing, dairy farming, and production of coffee, fruits, food crops, poultry, piggery and fish farming.
Busoga needs a new beginning in as far as PDM is concerned, considering that on May 3, when President Museveni and First Lady Janet hosted the Kyabazinga and the Inhebantu for a special luncheon at Entebbe, the President faulted some Basoga for not heeding his teachings on wealth creation like the four-acre model.
He said: “Now, Inhebantu you will have to use your mathematical skills to help the Basoga because many of them refused to listen to my advice of the four-acre model type of farming.
Some have listened but most of them didn’t care about it. This is the poverty the people of Busoga are talking about.
”The Busoga anti-poverty conference would also realign the other farmers in Busoga who have since resorted to growing cocoa. It should be noted that the late Grace Mutekanga, who composed the Makerere University anthem, had interested some Basoga, especially in Kamuli in cocoa growing. He established three model cocoa farms – 17 acres in Buyanda, 10 acres in Kabukye and five in Bufumba.
Such motivation is the reason why some of us have since resorted to growing cocoa and the registered incomes are great. I feel happy that the youth from some parts of Busoga have been benchmarking my cocoa farms and are moving in the same direction as me.
Amos A Igaga is a political activist. [email protected]
