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Uganda |
DEVELOPMENT
Uganda’s National Agricultural Research Organization
Sustainable development means acting in such a way that satisfies current needs, without depriving future generations of the means to satisfy their own needs. Sustainable methods of producing food have become a major issue in sustainable development strategies. This is at the core of the establishment of the National Agricultural Research Organization (NARO) in Uganda, ten years ago.
Since its establishment, NARO boasts of a wide range of achievements in improved technologies, methods and knowledge in agriculture to benefit Ugandans. However, according to Professor Joseph Mukiibi, NARO‘s Director-General, the challenge ahead is to develop efficient means of enabling farmers poor in resources, to make demands on agricultural service providers, and to improve the capacities of the providers, including NARO, to respond to demands.
NARO — mission and aims
Most farmers can’t get the necessary material, information and related services that could assist them improve their agricultural production. This is due to the fact that research services remain predominantly in the public domain. Now, NARO has created a Directorate of Outreach, in response to the need to ensure that research results reach the beneficiaries efficiently.
NARO was established by the National Resistance Council on 2 December 1992, with the mandate to undertake, promote and streamline research in crops, livestock, fisheries and forestry, and also to ensure the dissemination and application of research services. Its mission is to «contribute to the improvement of the welfare of the people of Uganda, and the conservation of the natural resource base by increasing productivity and utilization of crop, livestock, fisheries and forestry resources through the enhancement of scientific knowledge, and the generation, adaptation and transfer of improved technologies, methods and policy advice.»
NARO‘s aim is to increase the quantity, quality, and availability of technologies, methods and policy advice for the efficiency and profitability of agriculture, at the same time improving food security, equity, and natural resource sustainability.
Ten years on, Professor Mukiibi says NARO is now a full-fledged research organization with well-developed management systems. It comprises nine major research institutes, three research stations and 12 Agricultural Research and Development Centres (ARDC)s. The ARDCs were established through the upgrading of 10 of 18 former district farm institutes that were transferred to NARO in 1998. There is an ARDC in each of the 12 agro-ecological zones of Lake Victoria Crescent, Lake Albert Crescent, Western Highlands, Eastern Highlands, Southern Highlands, Eastern, South Eastern, Northern, Mid-Northern, Southern Drylands, West Nile and Karamoja.
Improving food security
A basic supply of food can be secured for Ugandans by modifying selected staple crops, making them resistant to disease and pests as well as drought. Indeed, according to Prof. Mukiibi, NARO has generated a number of improved technologies that include high yielding and disease resistant crop varieties, improved livestock, fish, forestry species and products, pest control strategies, soil fertility management and enhancement, labour saving devices. Notably, NARO has responded and controlled pest epidemics like the cassava mosaic disease, and is now at the forefront of fighting the coffee wilt disease that has devastated coffee trees in twenty-two of Uganda’s coffee growing districts.
Research and technology development for farmers is one of the twelve pillars identified during the formulation of the Plan to Modernize Agriculture (PMA), making NARO very relevant to its ideals. The PMA was launched last May. Also in compliance with the PMA and the Poverty Eradication Action Plan (PEAP), NARO developed a ten-year strategy.
Strategies
The 2000-2010 NARO Strategy, called: «Facing the Research Challenges for Modernization of Agriculture», has five components: Improving the efficiency and effectiveness of technology development and transfer, through the greater participation of producers in all stages of the research and dissemination process; better targeting of research resources and stronger linkages with all sources of knowledge; broadening the funding base and promoting participation of the private sector in the funding and provision of agricultural research and related services; mainstreaming gender and integrating environmental concerns in all aspects of technology development and transfer; increasing and maintaining the knowledge base through basic and strategic research; strengthening NARO‘s capacity to implement these strategies in a sustainable manner, especially with respect to its ability to attract, develop and retain quality staff, resource deployment and decentralization of activities through a network of ARDCs.
NARO also developed a Medium Term Plan (MTP) 2000-2005, called: «Responding to the Research Challenges for the Modernization of Agriculture». Through the MTP, NARO is poised to forge forward to realize its goal of contributing to the modernization process and reduce poverty in Uganda through research that is demand-driven.
Agriculture has to feed more and more Ugandans who are using less and less arable land or steadily declining farmland per head. As Uganda’s population grows from the current level of an estimated 22 million people, food production will have to be more than doubled, to supply sufficient food for the population and also guarantee food security. This can only be achieved using sustainable farming strategies and land-conserving methods that encourage less harmful use of the soil.
Professor Mukiibi says: «Research will be at the core of the agricultural transformation process.» With this conviction, one of NARO‘s greatest achievements has been the attraction of funding of small research activities ranging from US $5,000 to $ 5 million, in addition to funding from the Ugandan government.
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