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Soroti, Uganda | THE INDEPENDENT | Several crop gardens in various places in the country are drying up because of the prolonged drought raising fears of food shortage. The affected crops include beans, maize, millet and groundnuts among others.
Some of the affected areas include Bulambuli in Bugisu sub-region, districts of Lango and Teso sub-regions. According to residents, the scorching sun that started in early May has seen many of their gardens dry off.
Farmers are now cutting down crops affected by the drought in preparation for the next planting season. In Kapelebyong, more than 90 percent of the crops planted in the first season will not be harvested according to John William Ejiet, the District Production and Marketing Officer. He explains that the dry spell set in when some farmers had just planted the crops.
“We have had more than two months without rain and this has caused poor germination of seeds which has affected even inputs from Operation Wealth Creation-OWC especially cassava stems. Everything that farmers planted earlier has dried and this includes all the main food enterprises like groundnuts, maize, sorghum and cassava”, he said.
Ejiet says that the district is currently surviving on the remaining food stock estimated at 25 percent, something he notes is an indicator of serious food shortage in the subsequent months.
Mike Enyaku, the Soroti District Production Officer says the situation is worrying. He has urged farmers to utilize the second rains to plant fast maturing and high yielding crops to save the situation.
During a meeting with MPs from Teso in Soroti Hospital recently, Kenneth Obote Ongalo, the State Minister for Teso Affairs asked his counterparts to look into the matter after touring the region. He said that drought has affected most of the gardens across all the ten districts of Teso.
The situation is not any different in Bulambuli, the District Production Officer Alfred Tsekedi says that the drought set in at a time when the crops were flowering. He says that the drought has mainly affected maize, which is a staple food in the district.
He says that the drought came in when the farmers were just recovering from floods that had just hit the district. He says currently, over 50% of the farm yields have been affected.
Philip Wandawa, the Bunagami village vice chairperson in Bukalu sub-county in Bulambuli district says that his people are struggling to cope because all the crops they planted were affected by the scorching sun.
Peter Nanda, another resident in the same sub-county says that they have been planting for two seasons but this seems to be impossible this year. He wants the government to provide farmers in the district with water pumps that will enable them to irrigate their crops throughout the year.
Dr. Mulongo Muhammad, the Bulambuli District Health Officer told Uganda Radio Network that the challenge of food insecurity has led to an increase in malnutrition cases mostly in Bunambutye, Nabongo, Bumufuni and Bwikongye sub counties.
Some parts of Lango sub-region have also not been spared by the drought. Apparently, many residents are struggling to find what to eat because the scorching sun affected their crops.
Nelson Otile and Grace Elong, residents of Lira and Otuke districts are worried that their children might die due to hunger especially now that they are not allowed to move around looking for places to offer casual labour.
They are currently preparing to plant early in the next rainy season with the hope that the rain will be sufficient.
Dr. Laban Frank Turiyagenda, the Director Ngetta Zonal Agricultural Research Institute- ZARDI advised the farmers to seek guidance from the institute in order to harvest proper yields.
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