The Agriculture Committee of Parliament visited Nabuin ZARDI this week. The visit was to assess research performance and research benefit to the communities in the region. According to the Chairperson of the committee Hon. Janet Okori Moe, the committee also had a specific interest on how research outputs are rolled out and sustained in the communities.
Recently, government established irrigation project at Nabuin to provide water for research. In addition, a seed production project was also set up to produce adequate quality seed for farmers. The visit was aimed to assess the functionality of this projects.
Nabuin ZARDI is one of the 16 institutes of NARO conducting research in dry land technologies in crops and animals for Teso and Karamoja subregion. Dr Paul Okullo the Director of Research Nabuin ZARDI, elaborated on the ongoing research at the institute. According to Dr Okullo, alongside the irrigation and seed production project, Nabuin ZARDI has also recommended tree species for commercial production in Karamoja. There is also ongoing research to validate the NARO anti tick vaccine in the zone. Other research areas include, hay conservation for dry season feeding, soil fertility and conservation technologies, recommended early maturing seed for Karamoja, fish research, apiculture and labor-saving technologies among others. Dr Okullo highlighted the main research challenges that include; limited research fund, low research extension linkage, climatic challenges, and vandalism of research materials and equipment. He specifically said that the irrigation facility was vandalized and this affected the productive use of the irrigation, nonetheless the facility will be operationalized for adequate utilization.
After a guided tour on the ongoing research at the institute, the committee commended Nabuin for being on the ground. The tour included the irrigation facility, fish research, anti-tick vaccine validation trials facility. The committee pledged to lobby government for a special research fund for Nabuin to address the unique challenges faced by research in the Karamoja. They also advised Nabuin to package her research products and services attractively to increase youth participation. The committee also promised to follow up on the extension bill in offing that will harness coordination between research and district extension for a better service delivery.
The committee challenged Nabuin to do more on tree production. And added that Nabuin should be used as a bench mark to lobby for small scale irrigation to farmers in the region.