Failure by farmers in Kitgum District to raise co-funding contributions is threatening their access to support under the Uganda Climate Smart Agricultural Transformation Project (UCSATP).
Barnabas Opiyo, the Kitgum district focal point officer for the project, says only three out of 211 registered farmer groups have fully met the required co-funding threshold.
The six-year project, funded jointly by the Government of Uganda and the World Bank, supports farmers to adopt climate-smart agricultural practices through a cost-sharing arrangement.
Under the programme, the government meets 80 percent of production costs, while farmers contribute the remaining 20 percent.
According to district records, the registered groups include 117 crop farmer groups, 45 apiary groups focusing on beneficial insects, 10 groups working with black soldier flies, eight fisheries groups, and 31 livestock groups.
Officials warn that failure to raise the required funds could lock out many groups—especially crop farmers—from benefiting during the current planting season.
He explains that farmers can benefit from the project only once, making the initial co-funding contribution critical.
Opiyo attributes the low compliance to financial constraints, noting that many farmers are struggling to balance household needs such as school fees and daily expenses.
Geoffrey Oloya, a member of Gum Pa Lacwec Farmers’ Group in Kampala Anyuka Village, Labongo Amida Sub-county, says their group is among those that have failed to raise the co-fund.
Oloya says the group’s 34 members engage in soya bean and sunflower growing, but their crops have been devastated by floods over the past two seasons, affecting their ability to raise the required contribution. He suggestes that the government consider allowing farmers to pay at least half of the co-funding amount.
By URN
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