BY KELVIN ATUHAIRE
KAMPALA. The 17th seeds of gold farm clinic that is slated to happen on Saturday in Lira has lined up a number of finance experts to help farmers develop their agribusiness.
While signing the memorandum of understanding between Agricultural Business Initiative (aBi) and Nation media group (NMG) at aBi offices in Kampala, the chief operating officer aBi development Mr. Francis Chesang, said aBi has lined up agribusiness experts to educate the participants on how to improve their livelihoods with the money they get from produce.
“We are going to have technical people at our stalls and they will be providing technical advice in agribusiness, because there are many challenges farmers meet. They will be able to find all key players in agribusiness where they can get all the information,” Mr Chesang said.
aBi which is partnering with NMG for the 4th time contributed shs. 75million to help boost on the seeds of gold farm clinic set to happen over the weekend. Mr Chesang promised participants to be given information on how to have access to their grants and loans with a small interest which they give out to farmers to help boost their agribusinesses.
“The purpose of our participation in this farm clinic in lira is mainly to engage the farmers there, they will get to know about how they can access grants, loans with small interests to help them develop their businesses,” says aBi Advocacy and communications manager George Mutagubya.
Among other key issues to be discussed are the challenges that financial institutions face when venturing into agricultural finance, how Uganda’s 80 per cent of the population live in rural areas and work in agricultural enterprises can boost their growth, and eventually improve rural living conditions and the role of government in agricultural development.
Speaking at the same briefing, the managing director Nation Media Group – Uganda, Mr Tony Glencross, said they are happy to have aBi join them in developing farming in Uganda since aBi is among the key players for agribusiness development in Uganda.
“We can’t do this alone, we need partners to work with us to make it better so as to achieve a great result. aBi has the same goals with us, they are partnering with us specifically in this coming seeds of gold. I want to thank our partners for coming on board to achieve this great goal towards better farming,” Mr Glencross said.
Mr Glencross added that they will continue to inform and educate the public on how to improve agriculture using several channels, including through Seeds of Gold magazine, which is published in Saturday Monitor.
There will also be opportunities of one-on-one engagement with the farmers who will wish to have or require additional clarifications.
Seeds of Gold Farm Clinic
Theme: Climate Smart Farming
Date: Saturday, 9th November, 2019
Venue: Ngetta Zonal Agricultural Research and Development Institute in Lira, northern Uganda
Enterprises: citrus, Diary, Cassava, Soya bean, Shea butter, rice and maize
Time: 7am
FREE: Entrance, breakfast, lunch and training
Inquiries: 0701770983/0775197050
Sponsors: Bank of Uganda, NARO, Stanbic Bank, aBi, NTV and Seeds of Gold Monitor
