Every year comes with different milestones of achievements as individuals and community. I congratulate all the staff in the School of Agricultural Sciences (SAS) for the individual achievements in 2024, and as we celebrate these achievements, may they motivate you through 2025 and beyond. Some of these individual achievements have propelled SAS as a community to success. SAS contributes to the Missions and Visions of Makerere University in general but specifically to the mission of College of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences all with the ultimate purpose of developing human resources in Agricultural Sciences to support the Government of Uganda, local and international community in enhancing agricultural productivity, food and nutrition security, and economic growth. The School continues to champion up-to-date the knowledge and state-of the art technology in training students, research and innovation followed by outreach to communities. We are driven by entrepreneurial values to develop experts that can be directly employed and/or have capacity to create own agro-enterprises.
SAS celebrates the restructuring of the former Department of Agricultural Production, which was perhaps the biggest in the University into three units of Department of Crop Science and Horticulture (DeSCH), Department of Animal and Ranges Sciences (DARS), and Department of Soil Science and Land Use Management (DeSOLUM). I congratulate the pioneer acting Heads of Department Dr. Mildred Ochwo (for DeSCH), Prof. Donald Kugonza (DARS) and Dr. Giregon Olupot (DeSOLUM). This brings the departments of five including Department of Agribusiness and Natural Resources Economics (DANRE) headed by Dr. Rosemary Isoto, and Department of Extension and Innovation Studies (DEIS) headed by Dr. Bernard Obaa. The new structures have unlocked great potential that will be shining shortly in training, research, innovations, national and international partnerships leading to increased visibility of the units and University.
The School offers five undergraduate academic programs, namely; BSc Agriculture, Bachelor of Agribusiness Management, Bachelor of Agricultural and Rural Innovation (with both full time and external programs), BSc Horticulture, BSc Agricultural Land Use and Management. We are excited that the reviewed BSc Horticulture and BSc Agricultural Land Use and Management were reinstated in 2023 and 2024, respectively by University Council. The revised curricula for BSc Agriculture, Bachelor of Agribusiness Management, Bachelor of Agricultural and Rural Innovation were accredited in 2024 by National Council for Higher Education (NCHE). The School currently runs eight masters and three taught PhD programs in addition to PhD by research. The MSc programs with revised curriculum accredited by NCHE in 2024 include MSc Crop Science, MSc Animal Sciences, MSc Soil Science and Agrology, Master of Agribusiness Management, and Master of Agricultural Extension and Rural Innovation while MSc Plant Breeding and Seed Systems was accredited in 2023. MSc Agricultural and Applied Economics was accredited in April 2025. A new program MSc Environment and Natural Resource Economics was approved by the University Council and in pipeline of accreditation by NCHE. The taught PhD programs include PhD in Agricultural and Rural Innovation, PhD in Plant Breeding and Biotechnology, and PhD in Agricultural and Applied Economics. The School admitted international students (2024/2025) to academic programs Bachelor of Agribusiness Management, Bachelor of Agricultural and Rural Innovation, MSc Animal Science, MSc Plant Breeding and Seed Systems and PhD Plant Breeding and Biotechnology.
A total of 458 undergraduate students went for 10 weeks Field Attachment/ internship in various organization and Local Governments in 2024. A total of 51 MSc and 19 PhD students successfully defended their dissertations and theses in 2024, respectively. The School presented a total of 192 undergraduate students for 75th graduation ceremony of 2025 January.
By close of 2024, the School had 7 Professors, 12 Associate Professors, 16 Senior Lecturers, 29 Lecturers and 8 Assistant Lecturers supported by 9 technical staff in teaching, research, innovations and outreach activities. The School is proud of Prof. Jeninah Karungi Tumutegyereize and congratulates her upon her promotion to Professor. The teaching space in Biology laboratory was fitted with a smart TV (100 inch) set to facilitate teaching. This is in addition to smart TVs (85 inch) sets, which were installed in the Lower and Upper Lecture theatres last year. The smart conference room was fitted with 100 inch smart TV to facilitate international online meetings, PhD public defense and MSc Viva voce examinations.
The School is leading agricultural research in crop breeding, production and protection, animal production, soil and land use management, agricultural economics and policy, and extension skill for disseminating innovations. The current research in the School addresses broadly agrifood systems and Climate Smart Agriculture. The key highlights include: i) Coffee production systems, which has a number of research groups aiming at understanding the effects of climate change on production, pests, soil health, and carbon sequestration. These programs are supporting several graduate students (at MSc and PhD); ii) animal production and community resilience to climate changes in Karamoja aimed at improving animal feeds, animal production and household food security and incomes; iv) Seed systems and seed production research where staff of the School is supporting farmers in production of pest and disease free sweet potato vines. SAS remains the leader in soybean research (in collaboration with the Makerere University Soybean Centre for Improvement and Development, sorghum and cowpea (in collaboration with the Makerere University Centre for Crop Improvement); v) food and nutritional security and nutrition, vi) Soil and water management aiming providing effective biofertilizers and targeted soil moisture regime customized to crop-moisture requirement; vii) Production resource optimization and utilization efficiencies supported by multidisciplinary research teams combining biophysical and socio-economic sciences.
Going forward, the School is positioning herself under the CAES pact to be a thought global leader in training and research in Agricultural and related sciences with research groups focusing on:
- Crop and Horticulture: agronomy and ecosystems support, crop improvement, horticultural sciences, plant heath and crop protection
- Soil and land use management: soil health and climate change, watershed management, soil fertility and plant nutrients management, land use systems analysis and evaluation, digital farming and internet of things (IOT)
- Animal and rangeland: animal feeds and feed resource utilization, livestock production systems, animal genetics and breeding, sustainable range resources management, animal products’ quality management
- Agricultural and environmental economics, and agribusiness: agricultural policy, agribusiness and agro-entrepreneurship. An Agricultural Policy Research Centre was launched on 24th February 2025 hosted by Department of Agribusiness and Natural Resource Economics
- Agricultural extension and community engagement: agricultural communication and e-extension innovations
I pray and wish you all a blessed 2025 as We Build for Future, For God and My Country.