President Museveni has embarked on a country wide tour to assess the progress of his wealth creation campaign under the parish Development Model he has been preaching for the last couple of years. In his PDM assessment tours which began two years ago the president is impressed by the success stories of individuals whose lives have been turned around by the governments anti-poverty Stephen Bwire
The president hit the wealth creation tour starting with the Acholi sub -region in 2023 where he was impressed by some locals who headed his message of “lonyo” (wealth) amidst the ongoing development project (“dongolobo”)
In his Twitter handle, Museveni singled out Mr. Pascal Osire who has performed wonders evolving from a small subsistence farmer to an enterprising commercial farmer venturing into value addition
“I spent the day in the Acholi sub -region first visiting Modern Organic farm in Omoro District where the owner, Mr. Pascal Osire listened to the NRM message of creating wealth (lonyo) in our homes,” Museveni tweeted adding, in just under two years Mr. Osire has gone from four acres of planting Chill to owning over 250 acress of land and has diversified in to growing and processing produce like Gonja, pepper, Cashew nuts etc.
this is a good example of how poverty can be eradicated start with one acre, look after your crop harvest bigger yields and get more money”
He has bought the idea of chili on a big scale earning him shs 10 million per acre per year. This is much better than the cotton tobacco and the tea which have been problems in the west Nile region where people grow a lot of tobacco and cotton but they remain poor, “Museveni told the gathering
Osire told the president that since 2009, the farm has transformed the lives of over 200 youths who have been employed including school going children who came for skills during holidays. He said they have embarked on setting up a coffee nursery to distribute seedlings to the community.
“Your visions live in me I have decided to make my life a leader of the revolution of economic empowerment and wealth creations; we want to make poverty our number one enemy and Uganda will be a better country for everyone, “he told the president, adding that they project to make shs3.5 billion this year of which shs 960 million will be profits.
Osire is among the hard-working people of Acholi who are taking advantage of the peace dividend following the gun silence of the once long- running LRA insurgency to better their lives
While in Teso towards the end of last year the president visited Joseph Ijara a model farmer at Kakusi Cell in Serere District who he said earns 1 billion annually from dairy and poultry project selling 320 liters of milk from his cow and 320 trays of eggs daily.
And in his recently concluded tour in Busoga, Museveni singled out model farmers such as Tolofisa Buwala of Karamira Village in Namutumba District and Eliot Mukasa of Buwanda Village Nawampiti Sub- County in Luuka District who ventured in to passion fruit growing using 1 million funds under the PDM programme and have since turned around their house hold income
The PDM impact assessment has also seen the president tour Karamoja Bukedi, Sebei Bugisu and West Nile sub – regions where scores of individuals have kissed poverty good bye
Wealth Creation Focus
Wealth creation with a view to eradicating household poverty and enhancing household income has been Museveni’s major focus for the most time he has been in power. In his first ten years from the time, he captured power in 1986, Museveni would travel around the country in a cream cross -country Mercedes Benz dinning his signature Kaunda suit with a small blackboard in hand.
Wherever he would go the message was the same “okulembeka,” okutangiriza,” loosely translating to tapping resources or making money.
On May 8th 2019 during a nationwide sensitization campaign on poverty eradication the NRM party chairman Yoweri Kaguta Museveni presented a paper themed” four sector and the seven ways for wealth and jobs creation”
In which he pointed out commercial agriculture industries (big or small), services (hotel transport, professional services shops etc.) and ICT (Business process Outsourcing BPOs) as the four sectors of wealth and job creation which his NRM party have been preaching to Ugandans since 1995.
Museveni noted that 68% of homesteads in Uganda were still in subsistence farming (growing crops only for food) which is called “a sentence to poverty for those families that have not woken up. “With in agriculture there are four ways of doing commercial activities.
These are the four acres plans the micro- activities for those that no longer have the four acres the medium and large-scale farmers, “and the plantation agriculture, “Museveni noted.
On the four acres plan, Museveni recommended seven activities on account of high return per acre per annum which include one acre for clonal coffee, one acre for fruits (mangoes oranges and pine apples, one acre for food crops for the family (cassava, bananas, upland rice, or irrigation rice, Irish potatoes, sorghum or millet) one-acre fpor pasture for dairy cattle (8 of them); poultry for eggs in the backyard piggery; and fish farming.
The proportion of homesteads in subsistence living has since drastically fallen from 68 per cent to 32 per cent courtesy of operation Wealth creation.
Projected Returns
Coffee in one acre, can give Shs 18 million and fruits-Shs 12 million; milk Shs 8 million. “With poultry and piggery, the sky is the limit because as long as you buy food for them in the backyard you can keep a large number of chicken and pigs.
Museveni recommended that families with less than four acres can engage in poultry, piggery, onions tomatoes mushrooms, some zero-grazing dairy cattle, apples and grapes.
While families with 6 acres and above can use 4 acres for coffee, fruits, food crops, dairy farming, pigs, poultry, fish farming). They can also produce low value crops like Sugar cane cotton, tobacco, maize, etc. and on the other two acres in addition to the high value activities.
His 4th way is for plantation owners with a lot of land to use it for an industrial mono-crop: sugar -cane, tea, palm oil, etc. with assistance from the government. Hence the four ways out of the seven of creating wealth and jobs are in agriculture. Coffee in one acre, can give Shs 18 million and fruits.
“With poultry and piggery, the sky is the limit because as long as you buy food for them in the backyard you can keep a large number of chicken and pigs.”
Leading by Example
The President himself has had to champion this crusade of wealth creation by being an example. for instance, he bought 24 acres at Kawumu Village in Makulubita Sub County to demonstrate to small sale farmers on how to maximize profits by using a few acres of land for various activities.
On the farm, he initiated several activities including zero grazing, a fruit farm with mangoes pineapples passion fruits and pawpaw’s.
The model farm also has fish farming coffee matooke, mushrooms and vegetables.
Museveni was seen riding a bicycle to fetch water in the jerry can to irrigate crops using simple irrigation method commonly called “drip -irrigation”. or “bottle irrigation this gesture of the head of state irrigating crops using plastic water bottles attracted mixed reactions especially cynicism from Uganda s elites who would lash at the president for choosing to remain archaic in the era of fast – pacing technology.
Undeterred by naysayers, Museveni continued mobilizing communities from across the country and bringing them to his farm in Kawumu to teach them how to get out of poverty by using limited land and simple irrigation, this has paid off as a number of individuals have heeded the president message to transform their lives using the four-acre model.
The president has established similar demonstration projects in various parts of the country including Gulu in Acholi where he camped teaching locals.
Thanks to the president message of wealth creation and awakening majority of the population out of sleep, the poverty levels in Uganda have gone to 17 per cent and more Ugandans in the subsistence household entering the cash economy from 68 per cent five years ago to 32 per cent to date.
