The National Agricultural Research Organisation (NARO) has been crowned the Best Government Institution at the 32nd National Agricultural Show in Jinja.
The Uganda National Farmers Federation (UNFFE) announced the prestigious award during the closing ceremony of the annual event at the Jinja Showgrounds.
The evaluation committee chairperson, Mr. Benjamin Isabirye, noted that NARO excelled in transforming local farming practices through actionable scientific research.
“NARO has demonstrated excellence in agricultural research and technology development. It is also the government agency that has excelled in innovation dissemination and the provision of scientific solutions that support Uganda’s agricultural transformation,” Isabirye stated.
The agricultural exhibition ran from June 26 to July 5, 2026, pulling thousands of regional agribusiness stakeholders.
NARO showcased a broad range of agricultural breakthroughs aimed at improving crop yields, food security, and commercial production.
The agency’s displayed innovations included its newly engineered anti-tick vaccine and a premium black rice variety prized for high nutritional value.
The research body also demonstrated climate-smart farming techniques, pest-resistant crop varieties, and modern agricultural mechanization tools.
Presiding over the closing ceremony, the Minister of State for Agriculture, Hon. Desire Muhooza, commended the organizers for promoting commercial farming.
Hon. Muhooza stated that the exhibition directly pushes forward President Yoweri Kaguta Museveni’s vision to transition smallholder farmers out of subsistence agriculture.
The minister pledged that the government will heavily recruit and deploy field extension workers to provide direct technical support to rural communities.
“I want to deploy ‘battalions’ on the ground so that farmers receive the right messages while also establishing a dependable feedback mechanism that enables us to implement solutions tailored to the real challenges they face,” Hon. Muhooza explained.
She added that the Ministry of Agriculture, Animal Industry and Fisheries plans to establish regional exhibition hubs to decentralize technological knowledge across Uganda.
The minister specifically directed NARO’s National Coffee Research Institute (NaCORI) to rapidly boost the production of high-quality coffee seedlings to meet surging national demands.
To bridge this gap, NARO officially launched the Next Wave: Seeds of Wealth campaign during the annual show.
The economic initiative seeks to build highly resilient, lucrative coffee-farming communities across the Busoga and Bukedi sub-regions.
While the main agricultural exhibition has concluded, the Jinja Showgrounds continues to host the National Education Show through July 11, 2026.
The student exhibition runs under the theme: “Youth-Driven Innovation: Growing the Future of the Agricultural Industry.”
