KAMPALA— President Museveni has officiated at the handover of value addition equipment and grants to beneficiary farmer organizations at Namalere Agricultural Referral Mechanization Centre in Wakiso.
Museveni said the equipment will go to the villages for the project that he said is aimed at reminding farmers that agriculture is a business and they should earn from it, and it is just the beginning, “we are going to do more for the farmers”.
The President said these machines are made in Uganda by companies like Musa Body limited and the other companies.
“I am happy that we are moving in the right direction as far as transforming Agriculture from subsistence to commercial is concerned,” he said, noting that “We started the Palm oil project in Kalangala. The people on the island have become very rich now because of that project”.
“We are building for you a leather processing plant at Kawumu and we are also going to put up an industry to make paper out of banana fibers. This is because we are spending about $300m importing paper”.
The President warned NAADS headed by his brother Gen. Salim Saleh over supplying fake imported seeds.
“For months now, I have boycotted onions because we no longer have ‘serious onions’. We are losing our original seeds with real flavor like onions, tomatoes oranges, and others just because some outsiders said we should lose them. They must be restored”.
“I remember when I went to the USA for the first time in 1987 and they gave me a pineapple, it tasted ‘strange’. I am therefore protesting our people from using imported fake seeds, we need to keep our foods with their natural flavor”.