President Yoweri Kaguta Museveni has commended the National Animal Genetic Resources Centre and Data Bank (NAGRC&DB) for its remarkable performance in Greater Busoga during his recent wealth creation tour.
The President applauded the agency for its pivotal role in implementing the Parish Development Model (PDM), which focuses on improving production, storage, processing, and marketing in the region.
NAGRC&DB is one of the critical agencies that have been at the forefront of implementing pillar one of the Parish Development Model (PDM) which focuses on production, storage, processing, and marketing. The agency’s role in PDM is mainly:
- Breeding and multiplication of farmer-preferenced high-performance livestock breeds and availing them for uptake at very subsidised prices for wealth creation across all regions.
- Boosting community breeding outreach programmes with a special focus on Artificial Insemination (AI), oestrus synchronisation, embryo transfer, mass semen and liquid nitrogen production and distribution to improve the quality of animal breeds across the country.
- Mass livestock feed production and processing on Government ranches and farms to meet both internal and external demand for high-quality and affordable animal feed such as hay, silage and compounded animal feeds
Transformation of Busoga into a highly productive livestock hub
NAGRC&DB has transformed Busoga sub-region from the once-known region of low-yielding livestock and poultry breeds to a region that can now boast of high-yielding livestock and poultry breeds that are highly profitable—something critical for wealth creation.
Farmers in the region can now access subsidised multipurpose scavenging and easy-to-manage poultry breeds, i.e., Kuroiler and rainbow day-old chicks; superior-quality livestock breeds, i.e., pigs, goats, cattle (dairy and beef); and high-quality and affordable livestock and poultry feeds.
In addition to that, farmers and other livestock industry stakeholders in Busoga are currently receiving specialized training and skilling in better animal husbandry practices.
The above outcomes have been realised as a result of:
- NAGRC&DB is transforming the Kasolwe stock farm into a centre of excellence with a development theme of “Revolutionizing livestock agriculture in Busoga sub-region”.
- The agenda was to respond to the chronic livestock farming challenges that had crippled livestock development in Busoga subregion. Under this transformation agenda, the following are worth noting:
- Establishment of enterprises ranging from poultry, fish, piggery, goat and cattle for breeding, multiplication, and availing animal seed for Parish Development Model (PDM) farmers in Busoga. Over 7,000 farmers from greater Busoga and neighbouring communities are currently benefiting from this initiative.
During the Presidential wealth creation tour in Busoga this week, a female farmer was overheard saying “if it wasn’t because of NAGRC&DB, I wouldn’t be able to own a poultry unit like my sister in Mukono”
- Establishment of a 5MT/hr animal feed mill that is processing high-quality and affordable compounded livestock and poultry feeds for both government farms and ranches and PDM farmers in Busoga subregion and neighbouring communities. This was in an effort to address the issue of high costs as well as the quality and scarcity of animal feeds in the region. A farmer from Buyende District painfully narrated a story about losing four (4) dairy animals because of the scarcity and high costs of animal feeds in the region, and this was before the establishment of the animal feed mill in question. Farmers in greater Busoga are now thankful to the Government for this investment and hoping that it will continue supporting NAGRC&DB in coming up with more innovations of that nature
- Establishment of the skilling and knowledge transfer complex to disseminate livestock, poultry, and fish breeding and production solutions through the skilling of farmers, students, veterinary and para-veterinary professionals, etc. in all aspects of animal health, nutrition, and breeding.
- To further address the issue of low-yielding livestock breeds, the government, through NAGRC&DB established a liquid nitrogen plant in Njeru to support breeding, multiplication, and availing of high-quality livestock breeds in Busoga. Initially, farmers used to travel to Entebbe to get liquid nitrogen for animal breeding and production, and this increased farming costs and also negatively affected breeding timelines.Over 4,000 PDM farmers are currently benefiting from this government investment. “Transporting liquid nitrogen from Entebbe was costly and also affected our artificial insemination programme. Imagine an animal showing signs of being ready to be served and you have to first travel to Entebbe to get semen with the aid of liquid nitrogen,” says Mawerere, a Kamuli District-based farmer
- The government through NAGRC&DB established a community breeding satellite centre in Iganga, Busoga subregion, to further disseminate superior animal genetic resources through mass farmer training, mass estrus synchronization and Artificial Insemination. Over 1,500 farmers have been reached through this initiative which is very critical in the implementation of the Parish Development Model
Upcoming wealth creation plans for Busoga Subregion
- Operationalizing the floating fish feed production plant in Busoga for mass production and availing of fish feeds for the fishing communities in the region
- Mass investment in dairy breeding and production to transform the quality of the livestock breeds in the region.
Pictorial;
Some of the processed animal feeds at the Kasolwe-based feed mill
Grain storage facilities in Kamuli – Busoga
Part of the animal feed production machinery for Busoga
Poultry hatchery in Kasolwe- Kamuli
