By Matthew Okello
TORORO
Busitema University has researched and developed more than 30 innovations using the research and innovation funds the government allocated to the university.
The objective of the fund is to increase the local generation of translatable research and scalable innovations that address key gaps required to drive Uganda’s development agenda, especially the un-funded priorities and this is expected to be a catalyst to Uganda’s march towards Middle Income status.
In this financial year, the university received 1 billion from the government to support different research and innovation in the university and through this, the university was able to come up with 36 innovations all geared towards solving community problems
For instance, the faculty of engineering and technology through Dr. Godliver Owomugisha was able to innovate a driven farmbot for crop health monitoring and disease detection and they believe it will help farmers know what is happening in their gardens and produce appropriate measures for food security, the faculty also innovated a plastic waste reinforced roads at the main gate of the university.
At the faculty of science and education, Dr. Richard Owori Oriko developed herbal cosmetic products for management of skin diseases and focused in this field because he feels skin related diseases have been neglected hence this innovation will help solve the skin disease problems
In faculty of management sciences, Dr Ibrahim Musenze Abaasi developed an innovation in line with enhancing productive capacity and improve on the market access for youth and women small and medium enterprises for employment creation through this the university has researched on high value crops that once this group of people grow, they will quickly access market with their rare goods
While in faculty of Agriculture and animal science, Robert Muyinda has innovated aflatoxin control through the use of ligninolytic Enzymes and post-harvest technologies that is aimed at removing poison from the foods mostly after harvest.
Busitema university director of research and innovation, Samson Rwahwire wants the government to come up with a body that is going to follow up on different innovations produced by all forms of Ugandans and see a way of taking them to the industrial level.
He also asked the government to subsidize innovation so that those who cannot afford to industrialize get support from the government so as to trigger development.
The University Vice Chancellor, Prof. Paul Waako said that the university has capacity to come up with different innovations that can push this country to the middle income but are only limited by resources
Prof. Waako revealed that the university requires over shillings 8 billion to fully conduct research on different community problems and he believes that the country has enough raw materials that can help in producing these helpful innovations.
