President Yoweri Kaguta Museveni has this evening met a group of leaders from Teso sub-region at State House- Entebbe.
The group was led by Mr. Calvin Echodu, the National Resistance Movement (NRM) flagbearer for Soroti City West Constituency.
Today’s engagement was a follow up meeting between the President and the leaders. The first meeting was held on 22nd December 2023 at State House-Entebbe. In that meeting, President Museveni tasked the leaders to brief him on how much income each household earns in Teso, on the average land holding in the sub-region, on what enterprise that can be done on the available land and how the government can help the area locals.
The President also asked the leaders to address his three additional questions which included; What is the problem with the Fruit Factory in Soroti? How can these problems be solved? and then the amount of grazing land in the subregion.
During today’s meeting, President Museveni received a report from Mr. Echodu about the challenges faced by Teso. In the report, the leaders suggested recommendations to overcome the problems in the sub-region.
The President was pleased with the report because it thoroughly analysed the questions, he had asked the team in December. He also promised to make a few adjustments in the report and offer further guidance.
On the other hand, President Museveni was happy to note that the team realised that the people of Teso need to go into dairy farming through cross breeding their local cows with jersey cattle since the Friesian cows cannot stand the weather in the sub-region. The report highlighted that currently Teso region was selling over 5000 cows per week and close to 300,000 cows per annum injecting an estimated 400 Billion shillings to the economy making livestock the leading GDP Contributor in the region. The report also proposes the establishment of an Animal Genetic Center in Olilim or Okile in Kaberamaido District where Ministry of Agriculture still has land with focus on Teso Zebu. Echodu and team additionally proposed the establishment of a liquid Nitrogen plant in region to support the proposal of mass insemination of cattle crossing with Jersey breeds that are resilient in tropical conditions like in Teso.
He also guided that for household income to increase, the people of Teso need to diversify their farming activities and also start rearing poultry as this can favour those with small land holding.
The President further advised on fish farming as a good example of an enterprising project. He noted that digging fishponds may be expensive for farmers, therefore he said that the government can help dig the ponds for them. Additionally on fish, the President tasked Ambassodor Nelson Oceger Uganda’s High commissioner to Nigeria to work with Uganda Investment authority to source private investors who can invest in fish feeds processing in Teso so as to boost fish farming in the Sub-Region. The President was also willing to support establishment of a regional aqua center and hatchery infrastructure for fish farming.
President Museveni was also happy with the report finding that fruits used in Soroti Fruit Factory are the right ones that is Valencia, Hamlin and Washington suppressing previous allegations that the fruits supplied to the factory were being imported. The report also detailed the fact that Teso region has an estimated 8 million trees and that at bare minimum each tree fruits about 100kgs per tree. Meaning the region produces a minimum of 800,000 tons of oranges. The reports adds that Soroti Fruit factory processes only 60 tons per day and 21,600 tons per year. This means that the factory is consuming only 3% of the total production capacity of the region leaving an excess 778,000 tons of fruits unabsorbed. The reports highlights that the region needs close to 10 factories to absorb the current production levels.
Mr. Echodu thanked President Museveni for giving them an opportunity to once again interact with him, following their first interaction in December 2023 when he gave them some assignments to carry out and then report back to him after conducting some research in Teso. “Your Excellency, when we left here, we constituted a committee to do research in all the districts of Teso and came up with this report.”
Mr. Augustine Otuko, the Private Secretary to H.E the President in charge of Political Affairs informed the President that the objective of the report was to establish the possible solutions for the questions that he raised.
“The approach and methodology that we used Your Excellency involved consultations and review of available literature on the Socio-Economic issues of the region” he said.
Lt. Gen. Charles Angina, the Deputy Ambassador of Uganda to Egypt, recommended that bigger dams should be constructed to help control flooding in Teso.
“Your Excellency, we believe that if those valley dams are constructed and the old ones are desilted, we are going to do fish farming well,” Lt. Gen. Angina said.
Ambassador Nelson Ocheger, the High Commissioner of Uganda to Nigeria, advised that the government needs to intensify the efforts to encourage private investors to establish factories in Teso so that they can consume the excess fruits that the sub-region is producing.
The meeting was also attended by the Minister of State for Energy, Hon. Sidronius Okaasai Opolot, Hon Obote Kenneth Ongalo, the State Minister of Teso Affairs, Mr. Patrick Ongodia, Mr Peter Edopu Edeku, a lawyer among other leaders.
