The Minister of state for Agriculture, Fred Bwino Kyakulaga, has launched a new project dubbed Rooted in Diversity ‘Partnership for Food Security and Livelihoods’ (RID) by Participatory Ecological Land Use Management (PELUM) Uganda.
Speaking at the Launch of the five-year project in Entebbe on Friday, Bwino said the project will promote organic agriculture, benefiting 30,000 households across the country.
The minister added that Agrobiodiversity is the best way to promote food and nutrition security in this era of unpredictable weather that has affected agricultural production and productivity.
He said that there’s need for a law to enforce organic farming policies, citing environmental degradation and droughts due to reckless chemical use.
On his part, Sunday Bob George, the focal person for agro-ecology at the Ministry of Agriculture, said there’s an increasing demand for food , but also safe foods.
“So when we come up with these innovations, programs and technologies aimed at promoting for the safety, we are being mindful of the health conditions of the nation of the people of Uganda. We want to food to feed our growing population with enough food, but food that is safe because when you look at food security, one of the components of this project is to embrace it..” he said.
He noted that the project will help farmers to increase production and productivity, addressing issues of food availability.
“As government, our role is to support them. Create an enabling policy environment,” he said.
Francis Nsanga from PELUM said, “The five years are going to see us achieve four outcomes, food utilization, accessibility, sustainability and availability. We want to increase and improve livelihoods of farmers and communities,” he said.