Farmers in Luwero are protesting a decision by Abdul Nadduli, the LC V chairman to suspend activities of the lower level procurement committees under the National Agricultural Advisory Service- NAADs program. Nadduli suspended the committees two weeks ago on allegations of fraud and supply of substandard items to farmers.
He tasked the district NAADS procurement committee and contract committee to supply the items directly to farmers to eliminate the irregularities by technical staff in collaboration with procurement committees and suppliers. However, the move has drawn protests from farmers under the NAADS saying that decision contravenes the guidelines set by government and donors of the program.
Peter Ssembidde, a resident of Katikamu says that according to NAADS guidelines procurement is decentralized to the community level to allow the beneficiaries participate at all stages. Ssembidde says that Nadduli as the political head of the district is expected to supervise the program but not to contravene the set guidelines.
Sam Sserunjogi, LC III chairman Katikamu Sub County says that the people in the villages are too poor and can’t afford transport to go and pick up the inputs from the district. He adds that the move will also fail the programme because the bureaucracy at district will not enable the farmers to identify and source their desired items and suppliers as stipulated in the NAADS policy.
The NAADS public Relation officer Alice Nakaggwa has warned Luweero district not to implement the idea because it breached the set guidelines. He advised Naduli to write to ministry of Agriculture if he thinks that the programme is not progressing well instead of introducing his ideas, which contravenes with people’s demands and guidelines of the programme.
