By Bazio Doreen and Taibot Marko

Farmers in Adjumani District, including refugees, have been urged to take advantage of the multibillion-dollar market that has been constructed under the Uganda Support to Municipal Infrastructure Development Additional Financing (USMID-AF) project in Kiraba Parish, Ukusijoni Sub-county, Adjumani District.

Mr. James Lowgenya, the Dzaipi Sub-county Agriculture Officer, notes that the Kiraba market has the potential to become a regional market due to its strategic location but only if farmers in the area take advantage of the new market to empower themselves economically.

“Most times, farmers are cheated by the middlemen who end up getting a lot of profits. This is the time for farmers to take advantage of this market so that they avoid the middlemen,” he said.

According to Mr. James, most of the farmers in Adjumani grow maize, simsim, rice and soya beans, but lack market for their produce. Initially, traders were struggling under dilapidated structures, sheltering under trees and during rainy seasons, the market was suspended. The traders also lost their goods to rain and theft because there were no secure places to keep them. 

Mr. Mansur Alumai, a Farmer in Bekeri Village, Ayiri Parish, Ukusijoni Sub-county, attests to this. He observes that many farmers are now likely to earn more from their trade because they will even have an opportunity to store and sell at the same time.

“This market is going to help us because we don’t have stores to keep our produce, and the market has some stores. We are happy that we shall start selling our produce at better prices. I have been getting about Shs4m from sale of cassava and Shs3.5m from rice. With a proper market in place, I expect to earn more because I know the buyers will also increase.” Mansur boosts.

Mr. Dominic Arambe, the Ukusijoni Sub-county Chairperson, says that they are lucky to have been allocated this market, because his Sub County is the only one that has so far been allocated one under the project.

Arambe also observes that this market will attract a lot of farmers and produce dealers from West Nile and Acholi sub-regions and it will be a link to Juba due to its strategic location.

The market is funded by the World Bank at a cost of Shs2.6b, and has capacity to accommodate more than 1,000 traders. The project is expected to be completed by the end of January 2024.

The Uganda Support to Municipal Infrastructure Development (USMID) program is designed as a Program-for-Results (PforR) program building on the Local Government Management and Service Delivery (LGMSD) program- a performance base grant (PBG) program which was piloted by the Bank under the first LG Development Program (LGDP I) in selected districts and later scaled nationally to cover the entire LGs system in Uganda with funding from the Bank and other development partners.

END.