KAMPALA — Nyabushozi County MP Hon. Wilson Twinomugisha Kajwengye has called on the Government to invest in affordable cottage industry technologies tailored to the needs of smallholder farmers, saying inclusive agricultural transformation must respond to the realities of the majority of farmers across Uganda.
Kajwengye made the call while presenting his views in Parliament, where he highlighted the need for practical and accessible technologies that can help smallholder farmers increase production, improve household incomes and participate more effectively in Uganda’s agricultural transformation agenda.
The legislator observed that several government interventions in areas such as irrigation, agricultural financing and value addition are not adequately designed to serve smallholder farmers, despite the fact that they constitute the majority of players in Uganda’s agricultural sector.
According to Kajwengye, the mismatch between government programmes and the realities of smallholder farmers risks excluding many farmers from opportunities intended to improve productivity, create jobs and increase incomes.
He argued that agricultural technologies should be affordable, practical and accessible to ordinary farmers, particularly those operating on a small scale and who may lack the financial capacity to acquire expensive equipment and production systems.
Kajwengye urged the Government to strengthen support for smallholder farmers through technologies that can enable them to adopt irrigation, improve production methods, process their agricultural produce and undertake value addition closer to their communities.
He further called for agricultural financing programmes to be designed with the circumstances of smallholder farmers in mind, noting that access to affordable financing and appropriate technologies can help farmers move beyond subsistence production and become more productive participants in the economy.
The Nyabushozi legislator stressed that supporting smallholder farmers should remain central to Uganda’s agricultural transformation because improving their productivity and incomes would have a direct impact on livelihoods, food production and rural economic development.
Kajwengye said Government must therefore pursue an agricultural transformation model that is inclusive and responsive to farmers’ realities, ensuring that smallholder farmers across Uganda have practical opportunities to increase production, embrace value addition, access irrigation technologies and earn better incomes.
