Kagadi District leadership has completed a bench marking visit on Micro- scale irrigation Program in the 3 south western Districts of Ibanda, Ntungamo and Rukungiri District.
The exchange visit organized by the production and marketing department team comprised of District Executive committee members, District Chairperson, Members of the sectorial committee of production and natural resources, Chief Administrative officer, and a section of technical staff.
Ibanda, Ntungamo and Rukungiri District were a mong the first 41 districts under phase 1 as the government piloted the program and ranked byWorld Bank as the most successful districts in the program implementation in Uganda.
The team visited successful farmers with demonstration farms established by the districts to ascertain the best practices, challenges and solution for guidance as the phase two program implementations kicks off in Kagadi District.
Farmers will be able to cope with dry spells, produce during the dry season, transition to higher value crops, such as horticultural crops and coffee, and hit the market when prices are more advantageous.
The program supports smallholder farmers with 2.5 acres (1 hectare) with mini irrigation schemes in government’s efforts to transit farmers from mainly subsistence to commercial agriculture.
According to the Senior Agricultural officer KagadiMparana Desire who doubles as the program Focal person, a total of 7 demonstration farms have been established in Kagadi under the Micro-scale irrigation program and 711 farmers have expressed interest in the program.
The Micro-scale Irrigation Program is part of the Intergovernmental Fiscal Transfer Reform Program (IFTRP) and is supported by the World Bank through the Uganda Intergovernmental Fiscal Transfer Program (UgIFT).
Micro-scale Irrigation Program is led by the Department of Agricultural Infrastructure Mechanization and Water for Agricultural Production of the Ministry of Agriculture, Animal Industry, and Fisheries (MAAIF).