Museveni Welcomes AU Agriculture Commissioner, Prepares for 2025 Summit

President Yoweri Museveni held discussions with the African Union Commissioner for Agriculture, Rural Development, Blue Economy, and Sustainable Environment, Ambassador Josefa Sacko, who paid a courtesy call on him at State House Entebbe on Wednesday, August 21. Ambassador Sacko was accompanied by the Minister of Agriculture, Animal Industry, and Fisheries, Frank Tumwebaze.

The talks centered on preparations for hosting the forthcoming Extraordinary Agricultural Summit of Heads of State and Government, scheduled to take place in Kampala in January 2025.

President Museveni warmly welcomed Ambassador Sacko to Uganda, expressing his deep appreciation for the opportunity to host the summit.

“That is music to my ears, and I am very happy to host this summit. The potential for agriculture is huge in Africa. Uganda is really good to peg our agricultural perceptions around what we have saved because we preserved the indigenous agriculture: cows, goats, bananas, cassava, fish, etc. Our job was to modernize and commercialize our agriculture,” President Museveni stated.

“When you hear that people in Africa don't have food, it's because of colonialism and the dislocation of people from their heritage. They (Africans) start despising themselves and worshipping everything foreign. For agriculture, you are definitely at home. Uganda is the place—we have the crops of the forest, tropical savanna, and temperate crops,” the President added.

The previous AU agricultural summit took place in Malabo, Equatorial Guinea, in 2014, where the Malabo Declaration was formed, prioritizing accelerated agricultural growth and transformation for shared prosperity and improved livelihoods.

The meeting was also attended by the Permanent Secretary of the Ministry of Agriculture, Animal Industry, and Fisheries, Maj. Gen. David Kasura Kyomukama, among others.