Leaders want encroachers to back off Abi ZARDI Land

By Andrew Cohen Amvesi         

ARUA. Local leaders in Arua city have warned the residents surrounding Abi Zonal Agricultural Research and Development Institute (Abi ZARDI) in Ayivu East Division against encroaching on the institution’s land.

This is after it came to the attention of the leaders, mainly the political heads of Arua city that some locals have started grabbing part of the land earlier gazetted for Abi ZARDI.

Speaking during a recent function at Abi ZARDI, Malon Avutia, the Ayivu Division Mayor vowed to mobilize his colleagues to engage the residents of the area over the matter without fail.

Avutia said as the leadership of the city, they will not support anybody trying to encroach on Abi ZARDI land given the good services the institution is offering to the people.

“I want to thank Abi ZARDI for continuing to push that everybody should come to the money economy. I am aware of the challenges you have continued to face particularly with the surrounding community where some people’s mind is still about the land here. Some people have deliberately refused to believe that this land belongs to the government. As far as we are concerned, we are not occupying these offices to support madness,” Avutia said.

“What is remaining here is for you as a farmer; be it the nearest person or the farthest, to come and benefit from what has been established here. I have attended so many engagements here, I have always appealed and I’m going to appeal for the last time, that let us organize a big community baraza (meeting) here and let us come to talk to our people,” Avutia added.

The mayor said they want to use the chance of being in office to make sure the mindset of the local people is unlocked so that they don’t endanger the lives of staff serving at Abi ZARDI.

“I want to promise you, with the City Mayor and Members of Parliament (MPs), we will do that,” Avutia assured.

Similarly, Sam Wadri Nyakua, the Arua City Mayor observed that they are aware of the attitude of some people in the community who are negative to the establishments at Abi ZARDI.

“Please organize a big baraza because we are aware of the attitude of some people in the community who are doing destructions, who are negative to the establishments here, we want to come and engage them on that day,” Nyakua affirmed during a function in which technologies worth shs52m were donated to selected farmers in the West Nile region.

The seed technologies were donated by Abi ZARDI with the aim of addressing the challenge of seed gap so as to improve yield productivity and production levels in the region.

The donated technologies include; six cassava chippers each costing shs6m, NABE 16 Beans, NARO bean 1 and Bean 2, Maksoy3N, NAMCHE 5 Rice, VETIVA Grass, 10 Mubende goats and Longe 5D maize.

According to Clement Peace Ejua, a research officer at Abi ZARDI who doubles as the program leader technology promotion and outreach, the above technologies were selected because of their superior attributes.

“In West Nile, we have been having a challenge of seed gap and this intervention was specifically targeted to bridge the challenge of seed gap in the region and specifically why we have selected these technologies is because of their superior attributes,” Ejua said.