Government is set to sink Shs 60 billion into the agriculture cluster development project in 57 districts, officials said on Thursday.Speaking to the media at Uganda Media Centre, the minister of Agriculture, Vincent Ssempijja said this will be done with the help of the World Bank.Over the years, the Food and Agricultural Organisation FAO) has asked government to improve food security by investing heavily in agriculture.Museveni is expected to officiate at the event which will be held at the Agricultural Mechanisation Centre, Namalere today, October 10.Ssempijja said that the community investment is meant to support farmers to undertake bulking, value addition and collective marketing of quality produce for better prices and eventually get better incomes.“To date, the ministry has signed grant agreements with 193 selected farmer organisations from 24 pilot districts and approved additional 378 farmer organisations which are being prepared for grant agreement signing,” Ssempijja said.He said most of the funded farmer organisations have completed the first implementation phase of their respective projects that includes construction of stores and processing shelters/infrastructure.“These are now ready for installation of the agro-processing machinery and equipment, which have been ordered from Six (06) different companies in and around Kampala,”he said.The equipment includes: rice mills; maize mills, generators, bean seed cleaners, coffee hullers, cassava processing equipment, dryers and among others, which are due for delivery and installation to 47 different farmer beneficiary project sites.
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