The National Agricultural Advisory Services (NAADS) has adopted a new system that will see local/district based suppliers given priority unlike in the past where suppliers would come from far away districts.
This is aimed at solving procurement problems the agency has been facing.
This was revealed by NAADS Executive Director, Dr. Sam Mugasi during the recently concluded NAADS annual review performance workshop where Chief Administrative Officers, Resident District Commissioners (RDCs), Agricultural Officers and District Chairpersons gathered to reflect and discuss the progress of NAADs program.
Mugasi said the newly introduced model will localize the production of seedlings at district level in a move aimed at streamlining procurement.
He revealed that for a long time, NAADS has been relying on few nurseries in strategic districts and this came with challenges including late delivery and poor quality seeds/ seedlings among others.
In the new system, the districts are required to submit their three-year projections of what they want to plant and this will give seedling operators an opportunity to only produce what has been requested.
Mugasi explained that in the coming season, they are focusing on livestock, value addition, water for production and agro-processing as they wait for the localised system of seedlings to kick start in March next year where they will now be in position to give out seedlings as requested by different districts.
“We are going to make sure that these seedlings are procured in districts so that we minimize on transportation of seedlings for long distances and this will solve the problem of late delivery. It will also help solve the problem of quality because these seedlings are living things; the more you load and transport [them for long distances], the more they get stressed and lose the quality,” Mugasi said, adding: “We shall also avoid the problem of delivering things that haven’t been requested for. So districts have given us their three- year projections and the nurseries are going to be raised to meet that demand, so we shall also deal with the question of over production, where nursery operators have been stranded with seedlings; they are producing without knowing the required quantity.”
