Sh5b needed for cattle branding

By Sylvia Nankya

THE Office of the Prime Minister has requested for sh5b to brand over 200,000 heads of cattle in Karamoja.

The request is part of an additional funding of sh259b that the department requires above its annual budget to implement various activities during the financial year 2011/2012.

The OPM approved allocation for the financial year 2011/2012 is sh149b.
The Prime Minister, Prof. Apollo Nsibambi, told the parliamentary committee on presidential affairs that the cattle branding exercise was part of the Karamoja Agricultural Livelihood Programme and the theft prevention project which involves inserting electronic chips into cattle to guard against rustling.

He said 25,000 out of the estimated 1,200,000 head of cattle in Karamoja were branded last year in Kaabong, Abim, Kotido, Moroto, Nakapiripirit, Amudat and Napak districts.

“Under this project, 25,000 cattle were branded and handed over to the owners with certification. This year, we intend to upscale the implementation of this project.” Nsibambi said.

He said the cattle would be tracked down if stolen and anybody selling them would have to produce proof of ownership.

Within the same Budget estimate for the financial year 2011/2012, Nsibambi said his office needed sh127b as capital investment into the digital migration from analog to digital television.

The migration is in line with the International Telecommunications Union (ITU) recommendation and the Geneva 2006 agreement which set 2015 as the deadline for analog transmission globally.

Uganda, however, wants to phase out analogue transmission by the end of next year.

Nsibambi said the funding would be used to coordinate and evaluate the digital migration which is being championed by the ICT ministry and facilitate the switch from analog to digital for the Uganda Broadcasting Corporation.

Another allocation of sh93.5 b is required to facilitate the full scale implementation of the Luwero-Rwenzori development programme during the next financial year.

The programme launched last year involves disbursement of funds as grants to parishes and sub-counties.