By Joachim Twino
Livestock and animal husbandry minister Joy Kabatsi has appealed to stakeholders and breeders in the livestock sector to become more outspoken denouncing National Drug Authority (NDA) officials who she says are selfish and very bureaucratic, a thing that is slowing progress and decision-making in the livestock sub sector. She was addressing hundreds of livestock farmers, breeders and stakeholders who gathered at Imperial Royale Hotel in Kampala to be sensitized about the new artificial insemination technologies that are beginning to be applied and implemented on Ugandan animals under a partnership between MAAIF and CEVA, a French company renowned for livestock supplies including vet medicines.
NAGRIC, which is the government/MAAIF agency charged with livestock, is the one which convened and hosted several panel discussions that were held during the full day event in Kampala. NAGRIC new ED Dr. Charles Lagul announced that this was just the beginning because ‘the new NAGRIC will be one that is proactive and ever going out in the field to interact with farmers in communities rather than sitting at the headquarters to wait for feedback.” He also assured the livestock farmers and other stakeholders “this is your organization and we are your servants meaning you should be free to access our offices and seek any service that is within our mandate.” This prompted participants, led by Ben Anyama the chairman of the Cotton Development Authority, to ask Kabatsi to implore the President to preserve NAGRIC so that it’s not phased out or taken back to the mother ministry under the proposed rationalization program that will see many agencies either scrapped or merged with others or even reduced to units in mother ministries. “This new beginning is clear proof that we need NAGRIC because there is no duplicity in what it does. It’s very different from URF or UNRA in relation to the Works ministry. Kindly inform your cabinet colleagues and the president that it’s our wish as stakeholders to preserve NAGRIC because the new leadership there has clearly manifested that, with adequate funding, the livestock sub sector can be revived in a very short time once everybody is reached out to and mobilized,” said Anyama who was chairing a session. His submission attracted applause. Fred Kitaka, whose MTK is the CEVA authorized distributor and commercial partner in Uganda, said he was so inspired with the new leadership at NAGRIC to the extent that his company was ready to pay for all the radio and TV/media airtime the new leadership needs to popularize the new NAGRIC agenda.
“Just make your program and let us know. We shall handle the rest leveraging on the good relationship we already have with various media houses as MTK. The media airtime won’t cost NAGRIC even a penny. MTK is ready to pay for everything.” Kitaka said this was the only way his company MTK would reciprocate the enthusiasm the new NAGRIC leadership has so far manifested. He also argued that everybody will emerge a winner once there is a critical mass of well sensitized livestock farmers. His MTK Company is renowned for selling high quality vet medicines and other farming inputs throughout the country. “Awareness creation is good especially when it’s spearheaded by NAGRIC because it will increase demand for our high quality products in the era when counterfeits are everywhere and our farmers quite often fall victims,” he said attracting applause. The stakeholders noted efforts to save NAGRIC land at Njeru stock farm and Lagul’s efforts to introduce corporate governance values at NAGRIC. “Each time I visit NAGRIC these days, I feel corporate governance and we thank the new ED for all these efforts amidst the enormous challenges,” said a representative for one of the farmer associations in attendance. “This new leadership should be politically empowered by MAAIF to recover all the NAGRIC land against being claimed by fake claimants.” The stakeholders said that once NAGRIC is well revived and livestock production increased as a result, market can’t be a problem because NAADS alone can buy all the livestock NAGRIC might be having for sell from time to time. That NAGRIC only needs to reclaim all its land to support expanded livestock production on the government stock farms. Ben Anyama urged breeders to pray for Kabatsi and Lagul to overcome enemies of reforms at NAGRIC who he said are many out there and are very powerfully connected. He suggested that NAGRIC carries out a census and registers all livestock farmers and breeders “because it’s something we have been doing in Cotton.”
KABATSI BASHES NDA;
Members at the meeting unanimously agreed that NAGRIC had registered all this transformation, manifested in renewed stakeholder confidence, because of Kabatsi’s resilience to insist on leadership renewal at the Entebbe-based organization. “We know it hasn’t been easy but we thank God for the courage He has given you to lead us this far,” said a farmer speaking from the audience. On being invited by Gen Charles Angina, who represented Gen Saleh’s OWC, Kabatsi said much more progress would have been achieved by now pacifying the livestock sub sector if it weren’t sabotuers working with NDA. Herself a livestock farmer, Kabatsi explained what government has done to revitalize the sub sector and elaborated the ways in which NDA has been an obstacle. She said CEVA’s coming on board was indicative of the development partner willingness to partner with NAGRIC once the leadership issues are resolved. At policy level, she said liberalization of vet medicines should stop and it’s something she is working for except that NDA is hostile to her efforts. “We are trying our best but NDA officials are too uncooperative. They even deny NAGRIC permission to import vet medicines even in times of emergency. The commissioner of animal health is powerless and at the mercy of NDA all the time,” she said adding that the NDA rigidity, which she attributed to Mafiarism, was likely to foil government efforts. “We have recruited artificial insemination technicians at all levels, in the districts and we have vet doctors at sub county level in the whole country and these must save animals and they are ready to do so once we overcome sabotage by NDA.”
She said in this, Uganda is clearly ahead of Kenya “but we must overcome Mafias in NDA.” She said the newly recruited vet doctors are to each be facilitated with fat allowances and brand new motor vehicles to ease their mobility. “The only problem is they are too theoretical and we must support them to acquire practical technical skills. And the best way to get there very fast is to work together to ensure everything to do with vet medicine is under MAAIF and not NDA. This is something I’m pushing hard in cabinet. We must reduce the role of NDA in these things. I won’t give up however much they will keep saying that minister [Kabatsi] wants to use NAGRIC to build an empire and you wonder which empire they are talking about.” To further illustrate the NDA sabotage, Kabatsi spoke about vector crome which government wants to import for livestock farmers for the next 6 months but still some NDA officials were playing hide and seek on this. “Cabinet had passed it already but again NDA blocked it. They said we [MAAIF] must prove first that it will work and succeed up to 65%. Those NDA people are very manipulative sometimes. They always come up with funny reports which cause cabinet positions to be reversed on many of these things. I’m always asking myself aren’t we having mafias here [in NDA]?” Kabatsi told a cheerful audience. She said even the artificial insemination approaches that CEVA is here to partner with NAGRIC and avail to breeders for free was being resisted as not good enough by NDA. She revealed that even when everybody is agreed that the upcoming CEVA-supported artificial insemination program should be used for traceability, identification and tagging of animals (to eventually boost Uganda’s beef export potential), she was “fearful NDA officials aren’t going to be enthusiastic about it.” She concluded by saying her MAAIF/NAGRIC team would in the end prevail in all these things “because for us we are hands-on and not Kampala-based like those armchair NDA officials who don’t go to the ground to appreciate the magnitude of the problem and how much our livestock farmers have suffered.” For comments, call, text or whatsapp us on 0703164755.
