COU tractor pledge fulfilled -Minister Tumwebaze. In June 2020, president, Yoweri Museveni delivered two tractors to COU that were allocated to the West Lango and Sebei Dioceses.

Early this week Government delivered five more tractors in fulfilment of its pledge to the Church of Uganda-COU. The five tractors brings the number to seven tractors received by COU.

Those that received tractors on Tuesday are Soroti, South Rwenzori, West Lango, Bunyoro and Rwenzori dioceses.   The donation is part of President Yoweri Museveni’s pledge to the religious leaders to help the government enhance agriculture and empower their communities.

Receiving the five tractors at the Provincial Secretariat, the Archbishop of Church of Uganda, the Most Rev Dr. Stephen Samuel Kaziimba Mugalu, noted that COU would use them to join the struggle of fighting food insecurity among the population as they also look forward to self-sustenance as a church.

He revealed that the COU is interested in self-sustenance and they can easily achieve this objective through agro-business. Kazimba also says the church aims at building a holistic person by supporting the communities they serve to fight food insecurity through agriculture.

Kazimba revealed that they will distribute the tractors among dioceses and asked the government to condition donating to them more tractors to cover the 37 dioceses that makeup COU. He encouraged the beneficiaries to put the tractors to good use.  

On his part, the Minister Agriculture, Animal Industry and Fisheries, Frank Tumwebaze, who delivered the tractors, cautioned the beneficiaries to ensure that they maintain them well.

He pledged that the government working together with the National Agricultural Advisory Services- NAADS will ensure that all the dioceses benefit from the tractors as the effort is geared towards supplementing the growth of agriculture in the country.

Tumwebaze asked the church to help in changing people’s mindset about agriculture by encouraging them to use improved technologies to increase production.

The Bishop of South Rwenzori Diocese, Nason Barouk, whose diocese received one of the tractors, noted that the donation has come at a right time with a big demand for tractors. He said the tractor is to benefit both the church as an institution and communities they serve especially Christians to improve agriculture production in the area.