President Yoweri Museveni has pointed out commercial agriculture as one of the effective ways to eradicate poverty as government looks to transform the country into middle income in the next two years.
He said this during the occasion to mark 32 years since the NRA liberation of Uganda. This year’s celebrations were held at Boma Grounds in Arua district.
“NRM has been telling you about how to get 68% of our households out of poverty through commercial agriculture. Those with smaller pieces of land than the 4 acres, can also earn good incomes from onions, from tomatoes, vegetables, mushrooms and others,” President Museveni said.
He traced the approach of using agriculture in the fight against poverty back to 1996 when he personally led the campaign in the current Kiruhura district.
In his remarks on Friday, Museveni advised households to effectively utilize their land using “the four acre plan”.
“Have one acre of clonal coffee, one acre of fruits, one acre of pasture for six zero grazing cows and one acre of food crops like bananas, cassava or Irish potatoes,” he said.
In addition to agricultural programs, Museveni noted that government has put in place five Funds to enable Ugandans to raise their incomes. These include the NAADS Fund, the Youth Fund, the Women Fund, the Micro-Finance Fund and the Innovation Fund.
“These funds will help us to eliminate the 68% spectators of the homesteads that were identified by the 2002 census as being outside the money economy. In wealth creation, we do not welcome spectators,” he said.
He however admitted that corruption in government was still an impediment to the efforts being made, but said “this corruption will be eliminated the indiscipline of the army”.
On the political front, the President highlighted the issue of democracy noting that Uganda’s is richer than anybody has ever attempted to do in the world.
He said that over the three decades, NRM has empowered women, the youth, the workers, the disabled, the soldiers and other groups.