“Our focus and mandate for this new term is to build a strong, sustainable, and resilient farmer organization,” said Richard.

 “As we take off to the next 3 years, I want us to be united; work as a team such that we improve the livelihoods of the young farmers,” Richard Semwanga, President elect, Young Farmers’ Federation of Uganda revealed.

Richard highlighted these sentiments at the recently concluded 7th UNYFA Annual General Meeting in an effort to enhance the sustenance of the young farmers country wide.  

He further committed to strengthen the federation together with his newly elected board.

The new UNYFA Board members ready to drive change

“Our focus and mandate for this new term is to build a strong, sustainable, and resilient farmer organization,” said Richard.

He added, “This will be achieved through timely accountability, member engagement, product development, the establishment of UNYFA Home, and lobbying for partnerships.”

Januario Ntungwa, Country Director, Trias East Africa

The country director of Trias East Africa, Januario Ntungwa, underscored the importance of an AGM as an avenue for accountability of an organisation to its members.

“One of the ways in which an organisation can be strong is if it’s accountable to it’s members, and an AGM is one of the means.” said Januario.

To the new leaders, he emphasized the need for service as the essence of leadership. “You need to know that leading an association is not a job. Leading is about service. Those who are able can volunteer themselves to be elected,” Ntungwa revealed.

Denis Kabiito, CEO, UNYFA

The Chief Executive Officer, UNYFA, Denis Kabiito’s views accorded well with those of the president’s elect, Richard Semwanga, saying, “We want to see a youth who’s socially connected having a lot of production at their farm. If all of us are in farming and have a group, we can build our associations and have youth structures at district levels. It starts with you to have the change.”

He tasked the District young farmers’ associations to portray Sembabule’s hard work to seek partnerships with other potential development partners.

“There is need for District young farmers’ associations to seek for more projects. In Sembabule, they are having several partnerships. Other DYFAs ought to learn some of these lessons,” said Kabiito.