Minister Grace Kwiyocwiny (R) commissioning the facility. Photo by Isabella Awor.
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Last Updated on: 3rd December 2022, 11:11 pm
Freedom Kwiyocwiny said the government is doing a lot, and urged the populace to embrace and make the best use of the facility and avoid depending on Europeans all the time.
By Awor Isabella Olong
Otuke – December 3, 2022: State Minister for Northern Uganda, Grace Freedom Kwiyocwiny on Friday last month commissioned a new 100 metric tons storage facility built in Olilim sub-county, Otuke district.
The storage facility, TND News understands was built at ‘a whopping amount’ – shs 134 million.
The facility is part of the BRENU project whose construction was awarded to Oyam Construction and Trading Company in September, 2022 by the Development Initiative for Northern Uganda (DINU).
The European Union and Ugandan government are funders of the facility under the project code named Building Resilience to Enhance Food and Nutrition (BRENU). It is also aimed at improving security, income and health in Northern Uganda.
Speaking during the commissioning of the facility, Minister Grace Freedom Kwiyocwiny said the government is doing a lot, and urged the populace to embrace and make best use of the facility and avoid depending on Europeans all the time.
Kwiyocwiny also cautioned farmers against selling all their produce yet they are not producing enough. She said, “The stores should not be redundant.” She urged the farmers to grow such that the government conducts ‘the processing in the store.’
According to Kwiyocwiny, Otuke district has fertile land but people are not producing enough and asked, “What will you feed on if you sell all the food crops in the coming years?”
She added that when drought hit Otuke district recently, the government gave food stuff to the locals which she said is not sustainable, telling the gathering that what the locals produce is more sustainable.
The former Zombo district woman MP, Grace, also appealed to people to change the way they do production and embrace parish development model (PDM).
She advised leaders of Otuke district not to look at PDM as a separate program but should integrate it with the system such that what the locals will produce is enough.
Gillian Akullu, the Otuke Resident District Commissioner (RDC) applauded the government and European Union for the financial support to the citizens.
Akullu said at the time that this is “helpful” and requested for continued support to the people of northern Uganda to help eradicate the rate of poverty brought by the insurgency.
The RDC urged district leaders to ensure the facility doesn’t collapse by putting it to good use and also cautioned farmers against selling off their food stuff during harvest cheaply because of money needs.
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The European Union focal point person Celine L’Hoste tells me “the kind of facility implemented will have a lot of impact on the lives of the people of Otuke.”
According to her, the facility should trigger additional investment that will contribute to generating more value addition.
Solomon Lukyamuzi, an M&E learning expert at IITA who spoke on behalf of the project manager of BRENU, said in terms of intervention the International Institute of Tropical Agriculture (IITA) under the production department has supported farmers with seeds.
Alex Otim, the principal assistant secretary to the Chief Administrative Officer (CAO) of Otuke who represented his boss said what kills most of the cooperative is corruption, adding that this is not the first time they have received the issue.
He cited Okwang, Adwari and Otuke where as a result of corruption all the stores constructed by USAID are dormant and at the moment all are non-functional.
DINU is a government programme supported by the European Union and supervised by the Office of the Prime Minister. Its main goal is to consolidate stability in Northern Uganda, eradicate poverty, under-nutrition and strengthen the foundations for sustainable and inclusive socio-economic development.
