Busoga leaders asked to implement best agricultural practices

Kampala, Uganda | THE INDEPENDENT | Parliament Speaker, Rebecca Kadaga, has led a delegation of leaders from Busoga sub region to learn from agricultural practices available at the National Agricultural Research Organization (NARO) in Namulonge.

Lessons from the benchmarking visit held on Monday, 04 January 2019 are intended to boost agriculture production in Busoga sub region.

“Poverty and unproductivity are too much in Busoga but we are on a campaign to improve the economic status by bringing these farmers to learn and encourage them to put what they have seen and discussed in action,” Kadaga said.

The leaders toured the Bioscience facility, Confined Field Trials and the Livestock Research Institute in Nyakesasa. They also toured a vaccine evaluation platform where clinical trials of NARO produced four tick vaccines in line with the World Health Organization. The vaccines produced include three tick specific vaccines and one cocktail with the capacity to protect Ugandan cattle from the three most prevalent ticks.

The Director Research, NARO, Dr. Swidiq Mugerwa, said that as a country there is a lot of money lost in importation of vaccines but the institute was looking at a better way to deal with inventing a tick vaccine that will work on a larger scope.

“Once this vaccine is on the market, it will save the country over shs3.2 trillion which is the current expenditure on imported vaccines and acaricide treatment for livestock,” Mugerwa said.

The farmers toured the dairy circular production facility which houses a new breed of Viking Jerseys that are considered appropriate for the local market in the current climate conditions.

NARO is a corporate body responsible for coordinating, guiding and overseeing agricultural research in Uganda.

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SOURCE:Uganda Parliament