NAAC Programme Area 2: Research and Innovation

Problem Statement

The agricultural sector in Uganda remains largely under developed because of the poor technologies and practices among the farming community among others. This has limited the production and productivity of the farmers and a result made the venture less profitable to the potential beneficiaries along the entire value chain. This situation is further complicated by the fact that there is a lot of scientific and conventional research that has been produced by the various research agencies in the country. The non-utilization of the available research initiatives and innovations makes development of the agricultural sector extremely expensive and the NAAC will dedicate efforts to bridge the gap between modern and appropriate technologies and the primary beneficiaries by providing an appropriate, cheap and efficient system of delivering these technologies, monitoring their uptake and contributing to their evaluation. The NAAC will also provide an opportunity to (especially the rural) farming community to adopt innovative, cheaper, farmer friendly practices by linking and providing space for its members to adopt the new technologies. The NAAC intends to create a symbiotic relationship between the farmer and the research where there is direct contact and information sharing and feedback from each other.

Strategic Objective: To create space for innovation and research uptake among the farmers through creating systematic and deliberate information sharing systems between the farmers and the researchers.

Intervention Strategies

• 1. Collaborating with agricultural research institutions to collect relevant research information for the farming communities.
• 2. Re-packaging and customizing agricultural research information into materials and formats that are easily understandable by the farmers.
• 3. Designing training packages and plans for its members.
• 4. Creating capacities with member cooperatives to transfer research knowledge within their members.
• 5. Putting in place agricultural innovation and incubation centers around various thematic areas in the agricultural arena.
• 6. Host Agricultural research innovations with Cooperatives.
• 7. Collaboration with researchers, research institutions, breeders on new and appropriate varieties for adoption by cooperatives.
• 8. Host innovation hubs in member cooperatives.