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Greetings from the National Agricultural Research Organization (NARO)!
As we enter the final stretch of 2024 and the first segment of 2025, I bring you season’s greetings, and I hope that you and your loved ones are well. At NARO, our global standing remains unquestioned through our fantastic research delivered by our dedicated and skilled staff who continually inspire the vision of our Entity. Thank you for supporting us in our service to society. With the guidance of the NARO Governing Council, we remain ambitious for what more we can do for the world by harnessing our massive strengths. We have a collective duty to have NARO at the front end of science as we tackle some of the greatest global challenges, notably climate change, food insecurity, and diseases.
For 2024, there is much for NARO to reflect on, as it has been a year of remarkable progress and exciting growth for the Entity. We are very proud of what we have achieved together in the past year, and we believe that, certainly, 2024 has set the tone for even more success as we enter the year 2025.
We continue to strengthen the institutional capacity needed to deliver on our mandate at scale. In terms of human resources, we attracted new and talented staff with the required skills and continued to improve the operational environment and staff motivation. We also continue implementing the new staffing structure that has seen us reorganize in order to deliver better services. To empower staff and enhance their experience, we also continued to improve the working environment by enacting or reviewing priority policies and guidelines, including but not limited to the Governing Council Charter, Grants Management Guidelines, Partnerships Guidelines, and Transport and Fleet Management Policy. Key policies such as the Human Resources Manual, Environment and Social Safeguards Policy, Client Charter, and Space and Housing Policy will be concluded in the first half of 2025. All these are intended to offer staff and other stakeholders the right tools and environment to serve humanity to the best of their ability.
Our credentials in delivering top-notch impactful research have been recognized again as we have received Government / World Bank funding towards solving climate-related challenges that hinder agricultural production in the crop, animal, forestry, and fisheries subsectors. With this, NARO is looking towards building trans-disciplinary and multi-institutional teams that will lead the drive against climate change bottlenecks that have become chains holding our societies in subsistence farming. The diversity of research teams provides a window of opportunity for our staff to start new relationships aimed at our research and expertise to national decision-making.
We have also managed to get accreditation by the Ministry of Education and Sports, Government of Uganda, to offer services under Business, Technical, Vocational Education and Training (BTVET). Our Institutes are now positioned to support Government efforts by undertaking the skilling of youths across the country in a mainstreamed manner aimed at job and wealth creation. The process saw NARO develop transformative curricula aimed at changing how we deliver our trainings for the better.
Additionally, in terms of research, NARO remains committed to the goal of safeguarding the country from an economic loss of USD 1.1 billion annually, attributed to ticks and tick-borne diseases. Having developed an anti-tick vaccine, we concluded the field trials in 2024. The findings show that the vaccine is highly efficacious and effective on the three tick species, notably the brown ear tick, blue tick, and bont tick. Efforts are underway to conclude the relevant approval procedures leading to registration and commercialization of the anti-tick vaccine. We plan to roll out the vaccine in the first half of 2025, and we are confident that this will be a game changer for farmers who are drowning in losses occasioned by the ever-growing tick resistance to acaricides.
NARO’s technologies would not have had an impact had the private sector not embraced them. In 2024, we rolled out two (2) hybrid maize varieties (NAROMAIZE 63 and NAROMAIZE 64) that have been well received by the market through the seed companies and NARO Holdings Limited. These Companies have worked with us for decades in the production and supply of early-generation seed (EGS) which has ensured increased production of quality-certified seed for farmers. For 2025, we commit to continuing to engage seed companies in the commercialization of our crop varieties to strengthen EGS production.
We fully understand that for us to develop and deliver new technologies, we must be strongly and highly engaged with other sister bodies that infuse synergy into our science. We therefore thank the Consortium of International Agricultural Research Centres (CGIAR), the various National Agricultural Research and Extension Systems (NARES), academic institutions, and sub-regional organizations (SROs) like the Association for Strengthening Agricultural Research in Eastern and Central Africa (ASARECA), the West and Central African Council for Agricultural Research and Development (CORAF), the Regional Universities Forum for Capacity Building in Agriculture (RUFORUM) and the Centre for Coordination of Agricultural Research and Development for Southern Africa (CARDESA).
Much as the story across the research landscape in Uganda and globally has been one of persistent financial challenges such as shrinking funding and narrowing donor base, we have been able to grow our financial resource base for research. Through making a series of difficult cost-saving and financial management decisions, NARO remains in a reasonable financial position for now. Largely, this is because of the continued commitment of Government of Uganda, and Development Partners that have recognized NARO as a global leader in research and trusted her with more funds. Projects such as AgBiome Biological Control (Bill Gates Foundation, USA), Africa Regional Perennial Rice Technology Centre (BGI Group, China), Feed the Future (United States Agency for International Development, USA), VegeSeed (Korea International Cooperation Agency, Korea), Participatory Conservation and Utilization of Root and Tuber crop Genetic Resources (Food and Agricultural Organization, FAO), Roadmap for Prioritized Investment in Uganda Coffee R&D & Seed Systems (World Coffee Research, WCR), and others have ensured that NARO continues to innovate in a thriving environment. To our scientists, we face very stiff competition for funding from other entities, so I would like to thank everyone who is continuing to work hard to deliver results to attract the next Grant/Project to NARO. Where there are results, there will always be funding. We commit to doing everything possible to make NARO self-sustaining in terms of resources.
Through 2024, we have worked hard to sustain partnerships in government, civil society, the donor community, the private sector, and industry. We thank the Governments of Sweden, Norway, Saudi Arabia, China, the United Kingdom, the United States of America, Germany, France, South Africa, India, Finland, Iceland, the Netherlands, Japan, Australia, Canada, Egypt, Korea, Russia, Switzerland, Spain, Ireland, and others for the vast support to our staff development and research programs. Additionally, in 2024, NARO entered memoranda of understanding with various local and international entities such as the International Livestock Research Institute, BGI Group / BGI Bioverse, Mbarara University of Science and Technology, Busitema University, and others. We recognize and value the competence of all these partners, and we affirm that NARO is available to work with them to harness opportunities for development and social responsibility.
In 2024, we were blessed to host several international research meetings and high-level delegations. These included the Vice President of the Republic of Uganda, H.E Maj. (Rtd) Jessica Rose Epel Alupo; Prime Minister of the Republic of Uganda (The Right Honorable Prime Minister Robinah Nabbanja);The Prime Minister of Lesotho (The Right Honorable Sam Matekane); the Minister and technical teams of the Ministry Agriculture, Animal Industry and Fisheries as well as the Ministry of Tourism, Wildlife and Antiquities; Permanent Secretary Ministry of Public Service; the Archbishop of the Church of Uganda; and delegations from the , State of Eritrea, World Coffee Research (led by Dr. Jennifer “Vern” Long), Gates Foundation (led by Dr. Vipula “Vi” Shukla and Dr. Brigitte Weston), International Livestock Research Institute (led by Prof. Appolinaire Djikeng), the Kingdom of Buganda, Rural Initiative for Poverty Alleviation (RIPA), among others. All these re-echoed His Excellency the President of the Republic of Uganda, Gen. Yoweri Kaguta Museveni Tibuhaburwa’s message of integrating agriculture into the regional and global markets. This is a clear sign that science and agriculture occupy a position of preeminence in the realm of economic and social development in Uganda and globally.
Furthermore, NARO is set on a path for greatness, and I interest you all to bear this in mind as we continue to progress towards the fulfillment of our institutional mandate. We firmly believe that, as stakeholders, each of our individual contributions will collectively enable us to realize the vision of the Entity. On this, I salute the staff, such as Ms. Betty Nahidu, Dr. Anton Bua, and others, who committed to and served NARO for decades until retirement in 2024. We also salute the outgoing members of the Public Agricultural Research Institutes (PARI) Advisory Committees for their selfless service.
Lastly, I am exceedingly confident that 2025 will be a year of tremendous growth and outstanding achievements that will keep NARO at the forefront of science globally. As Management, we shall ensure that NARO is equipped with the relevant cutting-edge technology, leadership, and culture needed to deliver world-class research. We shall build a competitive society supported by a dynamic agricultural research innovation system through innovating for sustainable agricultural transformation.
We look forward to a productive 2025!
For God and My Country.
Dr. Yona Baguma
DIRECTOR GENERAL
