- Under the parish development model, the government has recently set up structures and frameworks for planning, budgeting and delivery of public services. People at the parish level are to decide development priorities under the policies formulated at the national level.
- From the agricultural perspective, implementation of the PDM is envisaged to entail scaling up investment in on-going initiatives. PDM implementation is premised on the following legal and policy frameworks:
- Article 176,(2b) of the Constitution of the Republic of Uganda
- Third National Development Plan (NDP III)
- The Local Government Act CAP243 specifically section 49, subsections (b, d, e, and f)
- Decentralization Policy, in 1992, and Local Economic Development Policy 2014
- The Parish Development Model (PDM) is the last mile strategy by Government to deliver services closer to the people. It is an extension of the whole of government approach to development under NDPIII with the parish as the lowest unit for planning, budgeting, delivery of interventions for socio-economic transformation.
The model was designed to contribute to, among others, government’s efforts to eradicate poverty and transform subsistence Agriculture to commercial agriculture.
- The Parish Development Model is a vehicle for Government to drive transformation even beyond District level, that is, at Parish level closer to the households
- Under the leadership of President maximizing the use of relatively small pieces of land for commercial Agriculture remains a priority.
- With Parish Development Model support, households will be able to use the available land to produce food for consumption (with the nutrition and balanced diet requirements in mind) and also produce for the market
- This model is one of the avenues through which Government is fulfilling decentralization obligations given by Article 176, (2b, d, e and f) of the Constitution of the Republic of Uganda (1995 as amended).
- The 3rd National Development Plan (NDPIII) identifies the need to bring services closer to the people by strengthening the sub-county as the lowest planning unit and the Parish as the administrative and operational hub for all government services.
- With overall coordination from Office of the Prime Minister and Ministry of Local Government the roll of Ministries is to provide technical support, guidance, and establishment of minimum national standards of service delivery.
Production, Storage, Processing and Marketing
- The participation of Parish households in production, storage, processing and marketing of one or more of the 18 priority commodities, the 18 priority commodities are outlined in Annex 2 according to the agro-ecological zones.
- A value chain will be development for the priority commodities at the parish level using the nine agro-ecological zones.
- Dedicated efforts and investments focusing on area-based commodity cluster will concentrate various producers, agribusinesses and institutions that are engaged in the same agricultural commodity or agro-industrial subsector around opportunities, a number of parishes near each other will be grouped together with relevant value chain actors; producers, traders, processors, government, financial institutions etc. to enhance the efficiency of these actors.
- Providing extension and education, business management training, access to finance etc will be provided to enhance technical and managerial skills of the households.
- Providing infrastructure and facilities for primary processing, value addition and marketing including: post-harvest handling, storage, and grading, sorting, bulking, distribution.
- Government has identified and prioritized development of eighteen (18) commodities under the Parish Development Model
- These are commodities that have market locally and internationally include. Coffee. Fish . Cotton Diary. Cocoa. Beef. Cassava. Bananas. Tea. Beans Vegetable Oils/Oi1 Palm. Avocado, Maize. Shea Nut. Rice. Cashew Nuts. Sugar Cane. Macadamia Nuts.