The Ugandan Minister of State for Agriculture, Animal Industry and Fisheries, Ruth Nankabirwa has revealed that Uganda is set to adopt the Growth Enhancement Scheme(G.E.S), seeing the impacts it has had on the Nigerian agriculture sector.
The minister disclosed this in Abuja when she led an 11-man delegation to the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development.
According to Nankabirwa, the team was in Nigeria on a mission to understudy the workings and operations of the GES in other to boost food production in Uganda.
In her words, “We are hopeful that with the adoption of the Growth Enhancement and Support (GES) we will be able to control the quality of feeds. The little we have learnt before we came here have been given to the beneficiaries, who are the farmers to the suppliers of inputs. And also it will help the distribution of farm implements.”
In addition, the Minister said the government in Uganda produce seeds through research for smallholder farmers, while the private sector handles the distribution.
“Seeds production is done by the government through research, while the distribution is done by the private sector. We majorly practice subsistence system of agriculture, but we have policies on commercialization and mechanization of agriculture. We have also come here to understudy the e-wallet system. So we are on the right path to commercialize agriculture,” Nankabirwa stated.