The Independent Uganda: You get the Truth we Pay the Price
Kotido, Uganda | THE INDEPENDENT | The skyrocketing sorghum prices in Karamoja have forced farmers in Kotido district to resort to harvesting pre-mature sorghum to save their families from dying of hunger.
The sorghum in Karamoja matures between 90 to 140 days and is ready for harvesting when the crop has reached physiological maturity and the first season sorghum is harvested between July and August while the second season goes from December to January. Planting started late this year because of drought.
Emmanuel Lokuda, a farmer in Kacheri sub-county says the high cereal prices caused by hunger have forced them to start harvesting their sorghum that still needs two more months to get ready.
Lokuda said it is only sorghum that can save them from the hunger crisis but it is taking long and yet people are dying of starvation.
“It’s not right to do the harvest now but there’s nothing we can do because it is the only alternative we have for survival or else we shall die’’ Lokuda said.
Lokuda noted that the hunger that hit them hard has forced some farmers to abandon their gardens with crops without weeding because there is no energy in their bodies to do the work.
Peter Lodou, another farmer in the same village said that he is already smelling more danger ahead but the little sorghum they cultivated is being spoilt at an early stage.
Lodou said it’s not possible to watch children dying of starvation and yet there was something little in the garden.
‘’We could get a better harvest if we leave the sorghum to grow but now it’s not easy to wait for all that time when our children are dying,’’ he said.
Lodou appealed to the government to speed up the food distribution exercise so that it saves he little sorghum now remaining in the gardens to get ready.
URN has also learnt the sorghum that used to sell at UGX 70,000 a bag, has nearly doubled to 130,000 a bag, a price that has left hunger-stricken families threatened.
John Bosco Akore, the secretary of the Kotido elders council says the prices for sorghum have become abnormal and this has affected families with no income sources.
Akore noted that for an individual to acquire a bag of sorghum, you need to sell two goats that are not even in existence in the first place due to insecurity.
He said the situation is very bad and therefore, the government and any other development partners should intervene and save the situation before people finish the premature crops in the garden.
Akore explains that from July to August, the retail sorghum price usually declines due to increased supply from local harvest but this time round there are minimal chances of the price dropping down following the hunger situation.
With the climate change crisis, the region depends more on cereal grains like sorghum and millet because these crops perform well in the drier areas.
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