A Memorandum of Understanding was signed between NARO and COFIA. This MOU aims at agricultural knowledge and technology transfer and targets the communities in three sub-counties of the Tororo district. The main areas of collaboration between the two entities include demonstration plots, seed multiplication, value addition, and training, and information sharing.
COFIA is a social economic organization founded in 1992 and focused on bringing economic transformation to the communities in Tororo, Eastern Uganda. Its interest is in fostering greater health, food security, and widespread economic through sustainable farming. They do this; by availing improved agricultural practices and economic opportunities for smallholder farmers in eastern Uganda, with a focus on women, improving child and family nutrition at the household level, promoting agricultural innovation, bolstering crop varieties, and increasing sustainable productivity for the region in the face of climate change in collaboration with partners.
Dr. Yona Baguma -Director General, NARO remarks; shared the mandate of the organization, areas of operation, and a clear vision to conduct social economic transformation of the country. as we develop teachers for crops, livestock, fisheries, cross-country machinery, and land. NARO works with strategic partners and stakeholders to scale out these technologies to end users. He assured the COFIA team of NARO’s commitment to working with them to benefit the farmers. Mr. Godwin Othieno, COFIA President said they are focused on addressing issues of outdated technologies, capacity building in value addition, and sustainability through exposing farmers to modern agricultural information and technology. COFIA has in the past been working with the different NARO institutes with a presence in Eastern Uganda to train farmers and transfer knowledge. These include Buginanya ZARDI, NaSARRI, and NaCRRI institutes.
Informed the meeting that their focus has been on lead farmers, vulnerable women, and youth. COFIA has 15 acres of land available for demonstration plots and ready for use. The team has a value addition hub with equipment for training the youth who are the main target group. They currently are limited to rice, maize, and groundnut value addition.
The NARO side was led by the DG NARO, Dr. Kassim Sadik (Deputy Director of General Technology Promotion), Dr. George Lukwago(Ag Deputy Director of General Research Coordination), Dennis Owor (Director of Internal Audit), Prof Justus Rutaisire, Robert Bagonza(Director Human Resource), Dr. Imelda Kashaija, Jane Kugonza(Senior Outreach officer), Nelson Otim (Partnership Officer), Christine Elong (Public Relations Officer), Joseph Mbihayeimaana (Senior Intellectual Property Officer), and Elisa Nahayo (Senior Commercialization officer). The COFIA Uganda team included; Godwin Othieno (Country Lead), Margaret Othieno(Vice President), Josephh Ochieng (Programmes Coordinator), Gorreti Oketcho (Administrator) and Micheal Angello (Records Management Officer).