Caesar Obada, the Assistant Resident District Commissioner of Kwania said that the farmers should integrate ICT into agricultural interventions as a way to promote access to information and accountability.
Obada Ceasar, Assistant RDC Kwania addressing farmers during the launch of the Five Days Workshop held at Holy Trinity Church Ikwera on Monday (Photo by Solomon Okabo)
Smallholder farmers in the Lango sub-region have received digital skills training.
The farmers drawn from Lira, Amolatar, Kole, Oyam and Kwania districts were trained on mindset change, E-Agriculture Academy, ICT for farmers and other certified courses in agriculture and all value chains to enhance ICT adoption, service delivery, content and digital skills. The training was organised by the Uganda Communications Commission-UCC and Eight Tech Consults.
Nelson Tukundane, a Consultant at Eight Tec Consult says in the first phase of the project, they covered about 6,000 smallholder farmers within Lango, a move he said is aimed at improving service delivery.
Tukundane said they target to reach out to 100 farmers per parish in the entire country to address the challenges of limited markets, limited access to finance and lack of extension services faced by the small holders’ farmers.
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He encouraged young farmers to adopt good agronomic practices, marketing information, and process agricultural value chains instead of relying on the entertainment part of the ICT.
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Launching the five-day training of Kwania farmers at Ikwera Holy Trinity Church on Monday, Caesar Obada, the Assistant Resident District Commissioner of Kwania said that the farmers should integrate ICT into agricultural interventions as a way to promote access to information and accountability.
He asked farmers to use ICT for data collection as well as monitoring and evaluation tools because they are crucial for the agricultural sector since it is against the data collected that decisions are made.
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Farmers who spoke to Uganda Radio Network (URN) have welcomed the training with excitement.
Washington Onyum, the Secretary of Kwania District Farmers Association, says the training will address key challenges faced by the farmers that include among others, lack of markets, and quality seeds and will take farmers from the rudimentary tools to the mechanized agriculture.
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Another farmer Denis Odongo from Atongtidi Sub County in Kwania District says the Digital Skills training is timely, adding that will save farmers from being exploited by the middlemen.
Solomon Okabo
Freelancer