By Andrew Irumba
Dr. Patience Rwamigisa, the Commissioner for Agriculture Extension Services and Skills Management, at the Ministry Agriculture and animal husbandry, is in Rome Italy, where he went to attend a workshop organised by the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO).
The Technical Workshop is aimed at designing assessment tools for Agricultural Extension and Innovation systems and is being held at FAO Headquarters in Rome Italy from November 17 to 20, 2019.
Rwamgisa, who scooped a Pan-African Pyramid award because of his great Pan-Africanism and contribution to the agricultural sector, told our reporter that FAO is in the process of developing a tool to measure performance of Agricultural Extension and innovation systems worldwide. The tool is to be used by countries to continuously monitor and improve service delivery.
“I was privileged to be identified as a key resource person to participate in the development of the tool. I’m actually the only one here representing Uganda”, he said.
Rwamigisa is a dedicated agricultural expert who has spent the entire part of life doing research on innovations that can boost agriculture in Uganda and Africa as a whole.
He left his job at the School of Veterinary Medicine, Makerere University where he was an adjunct lecturer of Biomedical Laboratory Technology for 10 years rs, from 1998-2008 and went back to school with a conviction that when he returns, he would significantly impact on the future of the Agricultural sector, since Agriculture is the backbone of not only Uganda but Africa at large.
In that way, he believed, he would have contributed significantly for the wellbeing of Africa.
Dr. Rwamigisa dedicated his PhD degree in Agricultural Extension/Education at Makerere University and is now a PhD graduate of a 2013 class. He shifted his concentration from zoology and entomology in which he had previously graduated in 1993 and 1997 respectively to focus on Agriculture.
He completed a thesis titled “The Political and Institutional Dimension of Agricultural Extension Reform in Uganda: Experiences of the National Agricultural Advisory Services (NAADS) in February 2013.
His first big project after his PhD programe was the NAADS programe that was phased out upon the release of his research paper whose recommendations the president adopted in totality.
Rwamigisa has played a key role in the formulation of a national strategy for youth engagement in Agriculture and other policies that have streamlined the sector.
He has so far written and presented the following papers both locally and Internationally in defendense of his Pan-African ideals;
- “The Political and Institutional Dimension of Agricultural Extension Reform in Uganda: Experiences of the National Agricultural Advisory Services. (Feb 2013)
- “How to Promote Institutional Reforms in the Agricultural Sector, A case Study of the National Agricultural Advisory Services in Uganda” to the International conference on Political Economy of Agricultural Policy in Africa held in Pretoria March 2013; and the International Conference of Agricultural Economics in Milan, Italy in August 2014. The paper was published in the Journal of Development Policy Review, 2017.
- Contributed to a Book Chapter titled “When the Solution Became a Problem”: The Politics of Knowledge in Agricultural Research”. The Book published in 2017 and is available on amazon.com.
- Presented a paper titled “A Key Challenge of Reforming the National Agricultural Extension Systems in Africa: The case of Uganda’s Policy Reform process 1996 – 2011) to the International Conference of Agricultural Extension and Innovations held in Nairobi, Kenya from 15th to 19th November 2011.
- Presented a paper on Agricultural extension reforms in Africa: The Case of National Agricultural Advisory Services in Uganda at University of Hohenheim, German, August 2012.
- Agricultural Policy Development in Uganda from Colonial times to date: Implications for the future. Unpublished paper presented to Department of Agricultural Extension and Innovation Studies, Makerere University, Kampala. March 2004
- Reform of Agricultural Extension Services in Africa: Lessons from Uganda. A paper presented at the Democratic Republic of Congo national conference on reform of agricultural extension.
- The Need for a National Agricultural Policy: A concept paper for Policy makers and Development planners presented to Ministry of Agriculture, Animal Industry and Fisheries, Entebbe, Uganda. April 2004
- Integration of the Tick Decoy Technology into the National Livestock Disease Control strategy in Uganda: A concept paper presented to the Ministry of Agriculture Animal Industry and Fisheries. July 2004
- A critical Analysis of the Plan for Modernization of Agriculture in Uganda. Unpublished paper December 2000, among others.
Rwamigisa was selected by German Development Institute as one of African Scholars to participate in the G20 think tank on the Marshal Plan for African transformation in Johannesburg, South Africa in February 2017.
