Parliament Defence Committee Inspects NEC Agro Farm In Kyankwanzi

The Parliamentary Committee on Defence and Internal Affairs conducted an assessment visit to the NEC Agro Farm in Kyankwanzi, one of the core establishments of the Ministry of Defence and Veterans Affairs (MoDVA)

The committee is this week on a countrywide field tour of MoDVA/UPDF establishments.

The Committee on Defence and Internal Affairs is responsible for oversight on national security and defence, scrutinising the budget and government policy for the military and overseeing UPDF establishments and activities.

The NEC Agro Farm in Kyankwanzi was established more than two years ago as one of the subsidiary production arms of NEC Enterprises, alongside the Katuugo farm, to produce maize for supply to the UPDF.

The team of five Members of Parliament was led by the UPDF Commander of Reserve Forces Maj Gen Joseph Musoke Semwanga, one of the 10 UPDF representatives in Parliament.

The NEC Agro Farm agronomist in Kyankwanzi, Mr. Agaba Didas, said the farm is the sole provider of maize meal to the UPDF and to other parties who are in need of food supply, on presidential guidance.

He said the farm has more than 18 blocks of maize, with each block ranging from over 100 acres, totalling over 3,000 acres of maize. During the planting season, an acre consumes 10 to 12 kilogrammes of maize seed and the maize takes three-and-a-half months to mature and dry for harvest.

Mr. Agaba said harvesting is done on a large scale using combine harvesters, which help to keep the harvest clean from adulterants and aflatoxins. He added that the farm stretches from Lake Katonga to River Mayanja.

“This is a government farm owned by NEC Enterprises. We plant over 3,000 acres of maize and entirely it is to feed the UPDF. We plant only maize,” said Mr. Agaba.

The General Manager of NEC Agro Farm, Eng. Simon Baalwa Terwane, while touring the farm with the members of the Defence Committee, said the farm needs government intervention as it is faced with several challenges such as drought, inadequate planting and harvesting machines, and floods from River Mayanja, which usually submerge 640 acres of the farm for almost four months.

“The challenges we face are long droughts, lack of standard machines for planting and harvesting, floods from River Mayanja and animals that destroy the maize crops,” said Eng. Terwane.

Maj Gen Musoke Semwanga advised the farm management to maintain excellence in its production as it is one of the core values of the UPDF and its establishments.

He called upon NEC farms to benchmark with the Netherlands, a country that is leading in agricultural production globally, to avoid depending on nature for irrigation by utilising solar energy that can support irrigation throughout the year, even during droughts.

He also urged the farm to consider regionalising food production and security in Uganda and East Africa, which will enable the country to benefit from exporting food produced by these farms.

“In the military, we always want to have centres of excellence, so we want NEC to be a centre of excellence. NEC can always benchmark and look at how Holland does its farming. Also, NEC should never depend on nature for irrigation. I know there are a lot of government subsidies on solar power, why don’t we take advantage of them? We should also regionalise production by providing exports to other countries and become a centre of food production and security for our country and other countries in the region,” Maj Gen Semwanga advised.

The members of the Defence and Internal Affairs Committee appreciated the farm establishments after a two-hour tour of the Kyankwanzi farm and pledged support and consideration to NEC Agro farms in all their activities and programmes through oversight and budgeting as Parliament.