More than 300 farmers in Rwengaju model parish in Busoro sub county in Kabarole district are still waiting for the fulfillment of pledges made by President Yoweri Museveni, five years ago. 70 percent of the household in Rwengaju Model Parish are into active farming. In 2008, President Museveni selected Rwengaju as a model parish under the prosperity for all program in the fight against poverty. Museveni pledged to support the farmers in the parish by providing both piped and gravity water flow scheme, electricity and livestock.
He also said government would construct some of the roads in the parish to ease the transportation of produce to the markets. However, five years down the road nothing has been done by government to fulfill the pledges. The farmers are still facing difficulties to access water for their crops, leading to low production as some crops dry up in the gardens.
Gilbert Mugara, a farmer says that the parish has limited water sources, which forces them to track several kilometers away to fetch water. Mugara says that he spends huge sums of money to buy water for his animals. A jerry can of water costs between 300 and 500 shillings.
//Cue in: “in this village…
Cue out: …nothing has been done.”//
Faith Kabahumuza, a farmer in this village says that she is unhappy about the unfulfilled pledges by the President. She says that the poor state of Rwengaju-Busoro road has affected the distribution of her produce to major markets in Busoro and Hakibale Sub County. The farmer says that they have on several occasions reminded the district administration to follow up on the pledges but nothing is forthcoming.
Kabahumza says that government provided a generator to help boost power supply in the parish but it was rejected by the farmers because they can’t afford the cost of fueling it. But the district vice chairperson Kabarole, Moses Ikagobya says that the delay to provide water in the parish should be blamed on the Ministry of Water and Ministry of Agriculture. Ikagobya says that the district has several times approached the Water Ministry, which says that the model farm is under the Agricultural Ministry.
Ikagobya also says that they were informed by Ministry of Finance the model farm is under the presidential pledge fund, adding that the funds for extending electricity to the model parish have already been budgeted for.
