Production Department

Overview

This department is comprised of seven sectors namely: NAADS, Agriculture, Veterinary, Fisheries, Entomology, Vermin control and Trade, industry & Cooperative. Of these, six are active and have staff on the ground with exception of entomology which is without any staff.

Marketing: This department is concerned with finding the right buyers for crop and animal produce for the Amuria District people.

Agriculture: The department concerns the science, art, or occupation concerned with cultivating land, raising crops, and feeding, breeding, and raising livestock; farming.

National Agricultural Advisory Services (NAADS) 2 in Amuria: This is a Government intervention program that envisions an increase in farmers’ access to information, knowledge and technology for profitable agricultural production. The move is intended to boost productivity of agricultural produce in the middle of declining soil fertility, weather fluctuations and increasing disease incident. The NAADS Co-coordinator, Peter Cheli informed our data team that 5000 farmers have been supported both in food security and market oriented cases. Farmer group were formed and are to be supported this year. In his assessment of the program, Farmer Empowerment has been achieved as the local farmers can decide the type of enterprise to adopt. Counterfeit products can also be distinguished from original ones which initially wasn’t the case. In fact some suppliers are buying produce from the NAADS beneficiaries a practice that has greatly improved the standard of living of the local Amuria people.

Commerce and Trade: It is one of the departments that trains the local people into marketing techniques that can fetch them great results for their products.

Department vision

To have a community that is food and nutrition secure, economically self sufficient with better standards of living.

Department Mission

To strengthen extension service delivery systems, develop institutional capacity of resource farmer groups and promote adaptive research

Department Goal:

To enhance sustainable agricultural production for improved household incomes, food and nutrition security

Department Strategic Objectives:

To establish sustainable Farmer Fora and farmer groups in every village by the year 2015
To have 50% of farmers equipped with knowledge and skills on modern production techniques by year 2013.
To build the capacity of 20 AASPs and 10 SNCs to deliver quality advisory services to farmers by the year 2013.
To have cross cutting issues (HIV/AIDS, Environment, Gender, poverty and population) mainstreamed in 80% of production activities.
To have at least 8,000 households access improved technology inputs.
To reduce incidences of pests and disease out breaks in crops and livestock by 20 % by the year 2013
To strengthen one Sacco per sub county
To increase market access for 1,800 farmers in 6 sub counties by 2013
To build the business management skills of 9 marketing committees by 2013

Achievements recorded in the budget implementation of the FY 2010/11 and first half of 2011/2012

FY2010/2011

First half of 2011/2012

No.		Activity	Planned Target	Achieved
NAADS
1		Sensitisation and mobilisation	50 meetings planned	55 sensitisation meetings
2		Support to farmer forum and election of farmer forum	16 farmer forum in place	16 forum in place
3		Monitoring of the programme	17 visits	Five visits carried out
4		Planning and Review meetings	18 meetings	7 meetings
5		Farmer forum meetings	16 meetings	24 meetings
6		Selection of beneficiaries for food security and market oriented	5050 food security 488 market oriented 32 commercialising farmers	Activity on going
7		Inventory of Higher Level Farmer organizations (HLFOs)	9 HLFOs	9
8		Support on formal registration of HLFOs	9 HLFOs	Activity on going
Production Office
1		Staff Planning Meetings	2	2 Meetings
2 3		Routine Monitoring and Supervision	20	29 Field Visits
4		Submission of Quarterly Reports to MAAIF	2	1 Trip
5		Construction of Market Stalls	2	0
6
Crops sector
1.	Monitoring and Supervision		30 Field Trips	32 Field Trips
2.	Pests and Diseases Surveillance		6 Field Trips	8 Trips
3.	Procurement of Emergency Pesticides		50 Litres	25 Litres
4.	Inspection and Quality Assurance of seeds and chemicals		6 Field trips	7 Inspections
5.	Consultations and reporting to MAAIF		2 Trips	1 Trip
7.	Procurement of Assorted Equipment		Assorted	Nil
Livestock sector
1		Vaccination of cattle against CBPP	30,000	0
2		Vaccination of shoats against CCPP	5,000	4,950
3		Vaccination of cattle & shoats against PPR	15,000	14,995
5		Vaccination against NCD	50,000	0
6		Disease surveillance & control visits	12	6
7		Monitoring & supervision visits	80	20
8		Consultation with line ministry	4 visits	2
9		Rabies vaccination	-	1,000
10		Clinical activities	-	218
11		No. of farmers sensitized during vaccination	-	7,461
Fisheries sector
1		Law enforcement visits	60	60
2		Farmer training	20	20
3		Support supervision	54	54
4		Coordination/consultation with line Ministry	2	2
5		Office coordination	2	0
Trade, Industry & Cooperative (TIC)
1		SACCOs inspected & provided with support supervision	10	8
2		No. of traders sensitised on the Trade Act & Regulations	120	0

Achievements by development partners over the period under review:

UN WFP/AFRICARE Constructed 2 satellite produce bulking centres in the sub counties of Orungo and Kuju.
Concern Worldwide constructed 4 bulking facilities of 10 tons each at Okoboi, Airabet, Aeket and Obalanga and they are already engaged in bulking.
Northern Uganda ALREP. This is a successor program to NUREP
- Four (4) laptops were procured for the production sector heads
- Contribution of Ug Shs 3,600,000 made towards the district and sub county production departments’ operational costs
- The procurement process for the construction of the production office blocks in the sub counties of Asamuk and Wera and also supply of 3 motorcycles to the department is in progress.

Challenges recorded in the budget implementation of the FY 2010/11 and first half of 2011/2013:

Increasing production and productivity for the farmers for domestic consumption and for the market
The implementation of the production structure still remains undone and yet there is lean staffing which affects the departmental performance.
Pest and diseases out breaks in both livestock and crops.
Climate change effects causing drought and flooding.
Poor governance in SACCOs and weak savings and loan repayment culture by the community limits operationalization and realization of the SACCO objectives.
Establishment and sustainability of farmer groups
Most farmer groups lack group cohesion where by management of demonstration sites are left at the hands of the demonstration farmers.
Lack of office space for field staffs at sub county level.

Recommendations

Intensify disease surveillance and control measures.
Speed up the implementation of the production structure
Provide vaccines and pesticides for control of diseases
Continuous mobilisation and sensitisation on climate change adaptation & SACCO good governance, savings and loan repayment benefits.
Continuous farmer institutional development.
Encourage technology adoption for increased production and productivity
Continuous back stopping of farmers
Formation of SACCOs by farmer groups themselves in the sub counties where SACCOs are weak/dormant or don’t exist at all.
Construction of animal diagnostic laboratory and plant clinic at the district headquarters.
Construction of production office blocks at sub county level.

The following are the key departmental expenditure priority areas for the FY 2012/13

Crops Sector

Pests and diseases control.
Soil fertility and water conservation
Agro processing and value addition.
Agricultural statistical data collection
Farmer training
Extension staff training
Provision of motorised transport to field extension staff
Promotion of cultivation of vegetable oil crops
Promotion of cultivation of high value income generating perennial crops
Inspections and quality assurance of seeds and agrochemicals.

Livestock Sector

Vector and diseases control
Introduction of exotic breeds
Farmer training
Improvement of livestock marketing
Disease surveillance

Fisheries Sector

Establishment of fry centre
Enforcement of fisheries Act
Improvement in fish marketing
Farmer training
Procurement of fish fry
Establishment of aquaculture demonstration ponds in sub counties
Value addition
Provision of motorized transport to field staff

Trade, Industry & Cooperative Sector

Strengthening of SACCOs and linking of NAADS farmer groups to them
Increasing market access for the farmers
Cooperative education and business skills
Trade regulation and statistical data collection
Provision of technical support in agribusiness and marketing
Building the capacity of Higher Level Farmer Organizations (HLFO)

NAADS

Continued mobilization and sensitization.
Farmer institutional development
Agricultural advisory services provision
Capacity building for SNCs and AASP
Quality assurance & inspection
Technology distribution & multiplication
Agri business and value addition

Prioritized Investment Areas for 2012/2013

Recurrent Expenditure

No.	Priority areas:
Production office
1	Payment of Salaries
2	Staff Planning Meetings
3	Routine Monitoring and Supervision
4	Submission of Quarterly Reports to MAAIF
5	Production Campaigns
6	Multi-sectoral Monitoring
7	Inland Travel
8	Office Coordination
Crops sector
1	Monitoring and Supervision
2	Pests and Diseases Surveillance
3	Procurement of Emergency Pesticides
4	Inspection and Quality Assurance of seeds and chemicals
5	Consultations and reporting to MAAIF
6	Farmer Training and Demonstrations on Fruit fly Control
7	Office Coordination and running
Livestock sector
1	Vaccination of cattle and shoats against CBPP,CCPP,PPR,NCD,FMD and Rabies
2	Disease surveillance and control for notifiable diseases.
3	Training of livestock traders on veterinary legislation
4	Training of staff on artificial insemination
5	Monitoring and supervision
6	Motorcycle maintenance.
7	Consultation with line ministry.
Fisheries sector
1	Farmer training
2	Law enforcement
3	Support supervision
4	Coordination/Consultation with line Ministry
5	Office coordination
Trade, Industry & Cooperatives (TIC) sector
1	Mentoring, inspection & support supervision of cooperatives & HLFOs
2	Trade regulation & statistical data collection
3	Cooperative education & Business skills
4	Reporting/consultation with line Ministry

Development Expenditure

No.	Priority Areas:
NAADS
1	Procurement and distribution of technologies to farmers
2	Monitoring
3	Planning and review meetings
4	Advisory services contracts
5	Mobilization and sensitizations
6	Quality assurance and technical audits
7	Financial audits
8	Operations and maintenance of vehicles
9	Coordinators salaries
Production office
1	Construction of 4 cattle crushes
2	Cold Chain Maintenance
3	Procurement of soil testing equipment

Source:

THE PRODUCTION DEPARTMENT PRESENTATION TO THE BUDGET CONFERENCE HELD ON MONDAY 9TH JANUARY 2012

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