Uganda Tourism Board (UTB) during the weekend embarked on a Familiarization trip to the Western region to pay a visit to Agribusiness Enterprises located in the districts of Isingiro, Bushenyi and Mbarara.
The FAM trip comes shortly after UTB through its Tourism diversification strategy opted to partner with Agribusiness Enterprises across 18 regions and 51 districts in Uganda so as to merge Agriculture and Tourism hence the birth of Agro-Tourism. This merger comes after the board also identified opportunities presented by the Agricultural sector despite the fact that it employs upto 70% of the Country’s vast population.
Having studied the effects caused by the outbreak of the novel Coronavirus on Uganda’s tourism sector, the board determined to tap into opportunities availed by other sectors such as Agriculture, Health, Manufacturing, etc to boost Uganda’s tourism since the industry co-exists with numerous sectors of the Economy.
To kick-start off with the visits, UTB together with Media visited Gudie farm Limited in Isingiro before traveling to Bushenyi district for a visit to Bushenyi Youth Forum Project (Bushenyi demonstration farm) and Excel Hort Consult Agribusiness Incubator Limited (EHCAI) centred in Mbarara district.
Agricultural activities carried out at the farms visited over the weekend include; Irrigation farming, Rabbitry, Biogas development, Dairy farming and zero grazing for cattle and goats, piggery, small scale – crop crowing, banana farming among many more with a touch of Technology and modern farming practices.
The outbreak of Covid-19, a global pandemic brought about a standstill in all tourism activities as many Youth and Women especially those working in the Tourism sector were financially affected while some lost jobs and entrepreneurs in the tourism business lost lots of revenue, therefore to supplement incomes for such stakeholders, UTB opted to merge Agriculture and tourism so as to empower SMEs , Youth, Women and Farmer Associations and Tourism entrepreneurs and create awareness about Agro-Tourism and the opportunities therein.
While addressing guests and journalists at Excel Hort Consult Agribusiness Incubator Limited (EHCAI) positioned in Mbarara district on Saturday, the Chief Executive Officer – Uganda Tourism Board lauded Agribusiness Enterprises for the partnership as she noted the opportunity presented by merging Agriculture and Tourism as this will be a great milestone towards exploring possible opportunities for developing Agro tourism in the Country and also to help people involved in tourism to have an extra income even when the sector is on a low and in this way fast track the achievement of Middle income status as per Vision 2040 and be able to diversify the tourism product offering in the country.
Ajarova added that, ‘’Tourism and Agriculture liase and employ a big number of the population in the Country, therefore merging the two sectors presents a unique opportunity for economic development and also bring about an improvement in peoples livelihoods and incomes for sustainable growth and also create employment.
Ajarova added that, ‘’Tourism and Agriculture both work hand in hand and employ a big number of the population in the Country, therefore merging the two sectors presents a unique opportunity for economic development and also bring about an improvement in peoples livelihoods and incomes for sustainable growth.
In her closing remarks of the visit, Ms. Lily Ajarova extended her gratitude and a vote of thanks to all partners who had taken a step forward to organizing farmers for agri tourism. According to Ajarova, UTB seeks to partner with Agribusiness enterprises to develop the capacity of farmers and integrate them into Agritourist centers as part of the boards diversification strategy across the 18 sub regions of Uganda. This can only be sustainable if farmers are well organized to meet the needs of both international and local tourists.
Excel Hort Consult Agribusiness Incubator Limited – Director General Mr Alex Abiho, who also serves as the CEO of African Incubation Centre that supports the development of Small and Medium Enterprises in East and Central Africa working closely with different partners lauded Uganda Tourism Board for the background visit and pledged to liase with the Tourism board so as to support Agribusiness SME’s across 18 regions and 51 districts in Uganda.
He said, ‘’We have also committed to work with partners such as; Uganda Tourism Board, Agribusiness Tourism Association, Gofan Safaris, Travel Neza, Agro-Tourism Association among others towards the development of Agriculture and Tourism in the Country.’’
He added that, for the next 5 years ahead, EHCAI looks further to incubate upto 27,000 start-ups that are willing to join the sector through training of Youth and Women in collaboration with the Uganda Tourism Board for support and facilitation.
He further appreciated new relations with UTB towards fulfilling the African Union Agenda 2023 aimed at developing Agriculture and Tourism.
Mr Alex also revealed that EHCAI is looking towards improving on Research as through this, the Private Sector will liase with Universities for forums on Agribusiness development and Research.
He concluded that, through partnerships with the Operation Wealth Creation (OWC), Agriculture Farm Service Centre for Western region and National Agricultural Advisory Services (NAADS) that mobilise farmers groups and Associations, there’s need to use technology before preparing farmers for their packages and also through collaboration with the Microfinance Support Centre, that will be good for affordable financing to farmers and also make Uganda able to produce profitable crisps which initially were imported from South Africa among other Countries.
In addition, Excel Hort Consult Agribusiness Incubator (EHCAI) serves as a business incubation and innovation center operating in East and Central Africa with head offices in Mbarara in South Western Uganda.
This Agribusiness Incubator’s core vision is centered towards being the leading incubation and innovation hub for job and employment creation in agribusiness trade and investments. EHCAI prides itself to possessing a business incubation and innovation hub with crop, animal agriculture and also to being a one-stop-center agribusiness demonstration farm located in Kibwera along Masaka road in Mbarara city. The incubation hub has an agro industry value addition and processing unit, water for production technologies and natural resources, animal and crop enterprise mix management unit, incubation park, agro-tourism enterprise development facility, agribusiness and natural resources enterprises demonstration including apiary, horticulture, aquaculture urban farms, skill, talent and design factory opportunities for startups and Medium and Small Enterprises (MSMES).
Recently, Excel Hort Consult and Agricultural Center also embarked on establishing an African Agriculture Museum as a one stop center for traditional African equipment’s, songs and dances that accompanied different agriculture activities like pre planting, planting, weeding, harvesting and others.
Mr John Mujuni, the Research Professor at Makerere University also noted that they have been working together to make Agriculture attractive right from motivating start-ups from incubation, production level until having the product itself.
He revealed that, ‘’Tourism has for long-time been confined to Wild animals, National parks, etc and therefore with the diversification of Agro-Tourism, this will be the only way to go so as to develop the Agricultural sector.
Mr. Nicholas Lubanga, an Engineer at the Ministry of Water and Environment working under the Department of Water for Production in the Directorate of Water for Development revealed that, they have already instilled a solar irrigation scheme to support incubation centres and farms.
He said,’’ Some of the schemes we have done have already benefitted stakeholders with over 30 irrigation schemes across the different regions of Uganda and upto 50 districts adding Mbarara as its 51st district.
Mr Nicholas quoted that they have realised Climate change has always affected the entire Country, reason why the Ministry of Water and Environment stepped in to benefit farmers and relieve them and their crops from destruction.
He concluded that, they especially look at such schemes for high value crops so as to enable farmers benefit when sold out on the market as this scheme is rolled out across the different regions of the Uganda.
Water for Production – The Ministry of Water and Environment under the directorate of water for development noticed a national wide climatic change that affected high value and export crops. This prompted the ministry to implement a solar irrigation scheme in partnership with EHCAI. This is a national wide project intended to cover small scale commercial farmers and incubation centers for sustainable agriculture. Agri tourism being an all-time activity requires sustainable agriculture which can only be possible with irrigation given the variance in seasons due to climatic change
Secretary General Uganda Cooperative Alliance stressed on the need to revive cooperatives for a sustainable agri tourism sector. “Uganda has 21,000 registered cooperatives that can harness agri tourism through bringing people together, sharing ideas and financing agri value chains.
Agro Tourism – Agro tourism is a form of integrated tourism that brings together private sector, public sector and the local communities as a niche tourist destination that incorporates agriculture, rural culture and livelihoods as a tourist attraction. Tourists visit farms for leisure, research and training. It’s the most memorable form of tourism where tourists have hands on in areas like harvesting, egg picking, milking, slaughtering, skinning, fishing, and others. Uganda being the food basket of East Africa with farmers venturing into largescale farming, agro tourism has been designed to create jobs and wealth as an income generating activity.
EHCAI is a Consultancy company that has so far partnered with Uganda Cooperative Alliance (UCA), Bushenyi Youth Forum Project, Operation Wealth Creation (OWC), Uganda Banana Producers Cooperative Union and Uganda Youth in Agriculture and Agribusiness Network (UYAAN) to help develop agro-tourism in many parts of the country especially the Eastern and Western Regions.
BUSINESS INCUBATION CALENDER
1.Agri Tourism Enterprise Development and Management Course
Rationale – To skill and empower tour operators, farmers and other stakeholders on how to position themselves to embrace agri tourism for enterprise development, job and wealth creation
Duration. 2 days
Intakes. After every two months
Course fee. 150,000/
2. Business Incubation Management Training
Duration. 5days
Training fee. 800,000/ residential.
400,000/ non residential
| Month | Month | Location |
| Location | 2nd -8th | EHCAI Mbarara |
| Feb | 1st -7th | EHCAI Mbarara |
| April | 5th -11th | EHCAI Mbarara |
| July | 5th -11th | EHCAI Mbarara |
| Oct | 4th -10th | EHCAI Mbarara |
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