Grow more rice in the second Rain, Hon. Dr. Agnes Atim Apea Woman Member of Parliament Amolatar Urge farmers of Amolatar.

 

Hon. Dr. Agnes Atim Apea Commonly known as “IMAT OCERE (MAMA RICE)” has urged farmers to plant more rice in this second rain that is presumed to begin in August. Dr. Agnes Atim Apea is the founder and the initiator of rice growing in Amolatar District and the current Woman Member of Parliament of Amolatar District. In her effort to lift the economic income of her people of Amolatar District, Hon. Dr Agnes Atim Apea has availed farmers with access to tractors to support farmers  in Amolatar District in cultivating their rice garden. In an interview today, the Woman MP urge her voters to use this second rain to plant more rice since rice market is already available in the district through Hope Development Initiative. She further  urged farmers not to deviate a way from growing rice since the benefits is huge and can support the local farmers with quick money which can help them support their children at school and also support the families in acquiring basic needs and improve the standard of living in the families

In our interview with one of the farmer in Amolatar District who rip huge in the 2022 rice harvesting, Ms. Catherin Akullu, a 33-year-old rice farmer in Amolatar District, married with 03 children. She is a farmer in Etam Sub County, Amolatar District. Akullu has been farming for 06 years and considers agriculture her main source of livelihood. For the long time she has been doing agriculture, she attests that the benefits and returns have not been matching the effort. She attributes this to the many production and marketing challenges she has faced mostly stemming from knowledge gaps.

Akullu says, “Because I did not know any better, my farming was characterized by poor seed selection, wrong timing during planting, poor planning, and middlemen were taking advantage and cheating me during marketing of my rice. I often bought grain from the local market and used it as seed, which not only had poor quality and germ inability but was also of mixed varieties and very susceptible to pests and diseases. This was affecting my production output”. She continues to elaborate that when she went to Hope Development Initiative-Amolatar for guidance and she was guided on how she can harvest huge quantity of rice, she went back and followed the guide and this helped her rip big in 2022 rice harvesting.

The Hope Development Initiative (HDI) is a women farmers´ organization based in northern Uganda in Amolatar District seeking to economically empower women affected by war.

In 2012, Dr. Agnes Atim Apea who had a vision of transforming her community established HDI in response to the post-conflict recovery in Northern Uganda. Identifying that food play a role in conflict, she believed that developing small-scale agriculture is the key to reducing rural poverty. In 2012, HDI started work with women smallholder farmers in the remote north of Uganda Empowered communities. First we focused on assisting extremely poor widows and their children. We helped them by providing seeds on credit after harvest they return the produce to HDI and given to another family.

Because of the business linkages (Hope Development Initiative) that meant an assured market for the farmers in Amolatar District, Mis Akullu got the confidence and motivation to increase her production. In 2022, following the business linkage to Hope Development Initiatives, she procured 400kgs of improved rice seed and planted 13 acres that season, this year 2023, she opt to plan about 20 acres of rice

Mis Akullu encourages many women to take rice growing as a life changing business that can pick them from being dependants to potential women who can sustain their families and pay children at school