Acholi Presidential zonal industrial hub situated in Bul-ker village Oding Parish Unyama sub county Gulu district is set to receive a total of 161 million shilling which has been approved by the statehouse for the establishment of the four acres’ model project.
The development was revealed by Opiyo Christopher Ateker, the Chairperson board for Acholi presidential zonal industrial hub who also doubles as the Gulu district LCV Chairperson.
Talking to the reporter during an exclusive interview held at his office on Thursday 9th November 2023, Ateker revealed that the state house has approved their budget amounting to total of 161 million shilling, after he submitted the budget to the state house and explained to the president last month.
This approved money is expected to be disbursed in this financial year to enable commencement of acres’ model farm which will serve as demonstration plot for the entire Acholi sub region.
Ms. Jane Barekye, the state house controller Centre was on 2 November 2023 sent to Oding to deliberate on the establishment of the 4 acres’ model project.
According to plans revealed by management of the Acholi industrial hub, they will install an oil processing factory, maize mills and silos for the storage facility and once the activity commences Acholi sub region is anticipated to be the major exporter of the finest maize flour to the entire world.
The President’s Initiative on the four-acre farming approach will be part of the youth skilling centers in the country. The four-acre approach or model aspires to have a farmer earning up to one hundred million shillings from a four-acre piece of land.
According to Museveni’s calculation the four acres’ pieces of land will be separated in this format One acre for clonal coffee, One acre for fruits such as mangoes, oranges and pineapples, One acre for food crops for the family example cassava, bananas, upland rice or irrigation rice, Irish potatoes, sorghum or millet, One acre for pasture for dairy cattle (8 of them); poultry for eggs in the backyard piggery; and fish farming.
This model is part of the initiatives being promoted under the Parish Development Model which should be running for the third year since it was launched.
In June this year, Ms. Rose Kabangeni, a senior presidential advisor on agriculture in charge of a four acres’ model project launched the project saying it is now being included as one of the units at youth skilling centers, she however by then directed the management of the respective 19 hubs in all the sub regions to submit their budget to the states house for scrutiny and approval.
Ateker says Following the recent approval of the 161 budget, a team of engineers from Gulu district local government are on ground assessing on how the 65 acres of land in Oding can be used best for the establishment of this project.
He however reveals that a total of 240 youths who were selected from all the administrative units in Acholi are undergoing skill training in various hand on skill disciplines and that they commence their training on the 20 October 2023 successfully.
