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The National Unity Platform (NUP) presidential candidate, Mr Robert Kyagulanyi Ssentamu, aka Bobi Wine, has promised to establish value addition factories across Uganda to support farmers and improve their incomes.
While addressing a crowd at a well-attended rally in Bulumba Trading Centre in Kaliro District yesterday, Mr Kyagulanyi said one of the main reasons farmers remain poor is because they do not benefit fully from their produce.
He added that the lack of value addition facilities to improve quality and attract high profit margins had left farmers in losses. Mr Kyagulanyi cited an example of the cotton ginnery in Bulumba, which he said used to help local residents earn more money through processing their cotton locally.
Mr Kyagulanyi also observed that the ginnery once served as a valuable economic driver for the area, but has since become dormant, allegedly due to neglect and poor policies by the ruling National Resistance Movement (NRM) government.
“This ginnery in Bulumba was helping residents get more money from cotton because there was value addition right here. But now it has been made inactive by the NRM government,” Mr Kyagulanyi said.
“People work so hard to grow crops, but they earn very little because they are forced to sell raw materials instead of processed goods,” he added. In Jinja District, he said Uganda’s cotton production has been falling due to low yields and abandonment of the crop by farmers.
Uganda’s cotton sector was liberalised in 1994 when the lint marketing board was disbanded.
Mr Kyagulanyi pledged that his government, once elected, would not only build value addition factories in every region of the country, but would also ensure there is a ready market for processed goods.
According to Mr Kyagulanyi, this will create jobs, raise household incomes, and reduce poverty across rural Uganda.
Mr Kyagulanyi also highlighted the challenges faced by sugarcane farmers in the Busoga Sub-region. He expressed concern that although sugarcane is widely grown in the area, farmers remain poor due to low prices offered by millers and middlemen.
Mr Kyagulanyi decried the situation where sugarcane farmers cannot even afford to buy sugar for their own households, despite being the producers of the raw material.
“It is heartbreaking that people in Busoga grow sugarcane, but the prices remain extremely low. Yet, sugar and other products made from sugarcane are very expensive. Many of the very farmers who grow it cannot afford to buy even a kilo of sugar for tea,” he said. Mr Kyagulanyi called on the people of Busoga and all Ugandans to make a protest vote against the current government, which he accused of failing to support the ordinary citizen.
Key issues
Kaliro District faces several development challenges, including the alleged selling of government jobs, particularly in education and local government.
Poor road infrastructure, especially in rural areas, limits access to markets, schools, and health services. Access to safe water remains low, with many communities relying on unsafe sources. In the education sector, poor performance is driven by a lack of qualified teachers and limited learning materials.
