MOROTO – The Permanent Secretary in the office of Prime Minister Ms Christine Gwatude has advised development partners implementing various activities in Karamoja to stop a mentality of giving handouts to the people of Karamoja and urged them to concentrate in making Karamoja families to be self-reliance.
Ms Gwatude made this appeal on Thursday 19 while touring successful agricultural projects funded by the office of the Prime minister in Moroto and Nakapiripirit districts.
Some of the projects that the PS visited are Namalu prisons farmer where office of the prime minister has been working with Uganda prisons service to produce food for Karamoja School feeding program.
She pointed out that the development partners should focus their programs on food production saying it’s the only way to change Karamoja but not through giving handouts to the people.
“We need our brothers and sisters, the development partners operating in Karamoja to stop spending the resources on software activities like workshops, giving handouts but they should use their money to teach people of Karamoja on how to grow food for themselves.
According to the PS if all the NGOs operating in Karamoja had one common agenda of making Karamoja feed Karamoja, by now Karamoja would be very stable with food.
She pledged that office of the prime minister will continue availing more money for food production activities in the region.
Meanwhile, farmers in Nakapiripirit district are already producing and parking of Irish potatoes with the help from Agro max an Israel organization supported by office of the Prime Minister under Northern Uganda Social Action Fund phase 3 (NUSAF3)
The locals sell their Irish to hotels in Nakapiripirit, Amudat, Moroto, Kotido and Napak districts.
Dr. Robert Limilim, the director of NUSAF3 said the production of Irish is the first of its kind in Karamoja and urged people to embrace it.
He said Irish potatoes was being brought from Bugisu to Karamoja but now since it has been proved that Irish can be grown in Karamoja people should now take on it.
Dr. Limlim who hails from Karamoja also acknowledges that the continuous giving of handouts by some development partners in the region has made the Karimojong treat themselves as the poorest community in the country, begging all the time yet most of them can grow food and chase away poverty.