The government under MAAIF has made yet another step towards strengthening the agriculture sector. This endeavor has been possible through the Agriculture Sector Strategic Plan (ASSP) that has recently been open to stakeholders to solicit inputs from their diverse fields.
The ASSP is a 5-year strategy for the Ministry of Agriculture, Animal Industry and Fisheries for the period 2015/16 to 2019/20. It defines the priorities and interventions to be implemented over the 5 year period, in response to the national agricultural development priorities presented by the Ministry in the Agriculture Sector Issues Paper approved by Cabinet and subsequently documented in the National Development Plan II (NDP II).
For FRA, the journey to influence this platform started through consultations made with a number of CSOs to conceptualize and consolidate our strategies, ideas and efforts to effectively utilize this opportunity to the fullest. To kick start this process, FRA in partnership with the Climate change learning alliance conveners (IITA and EMLI), Uganda National Farmer’s Federation held a consultation to bring on board other CSOs to jointly undertake a review of the ASSP.
A step towards consolidating our efforts as CSOs was made during this meeting. Pledges to mobilize resources for our next intervention where made, together with AFSA, FRA pledged to draft a letter to the Permanent Secretary, Minister of Agriculture, Animal, Industry and Fisheries (MAAIF). Although this consultative experience has been worthwhile in shedding a light to out next interventions, more needs to be done together so as to develop ways of constructively taking advantage of this opportunity.
As CSOs working to enhance food security, we need strategically place ourselves in this process towards the direction we want to see in the agricultural sector. More efforts should thus go towards echoing this opportunity among our networks, bring together actors in the agricultural sector and other sectors to share engagements on the ASSP.
Regina Kayoyo
FRA Secretariat
