How agro-ecology battles nutritional deficiencies and food insecurity

In generations past, traditional farming practices ensured the harvests were enough and that population did not suffer much diseases caused by what they ate. But with modernity, came a dramatic shift to conventional methods. 

Nutritional diseases now echo through the corridors of our healthcare systems, leaving us to question the true cost of progress. Climate change threats are also on the rise. 

It evident that Uganda has relentlessly battled food insecurity yet agriculture is the backbone of the country, employing 72 percent of the population, and contributing 25 percent to the national GDP according to statistics from the Ministry of Agriculture, Animal Industry and Fisheries (MAAIF) 

In order to counter the negative effects of conventional farming, agriculturalists from different parts of the country recommend agro-ecology, a holistic approach to agriculture that aims to create sustainable and environmentally-friendly farming systems. 

These experts argue that embracing natural processes to carry out farming ensures a sustainable food system that aims at achieving food and nutritional security now and in the future. 

Going organic
Christopher Wali Magala, a former agricultural officer in Mukono District, facilitator, and a small scale farmer practicing agroecology on his seven-acre farm in Kisoga, on Mukono-Katosi Road, shared his experience of practicing both inorganic farming and agro-ecology, saying inorganic farming had disastrous consequences.  

“The soil health was getting poorer and poorer every day, it could demand me to add more inorganic fertilisers, which we are not doing today. Now we are stable, it took me more time to stabilise the nutrient base of the soil. At first it was destroyed, the indicators included the colour of the plants, they were not as green as they are now, and they are more productive,” says Magala.

He adds that he could not grow a variety of foods due to the use of herbicides that when used to control weeds can allow one plant to grow. Magala practises majorly agroforestry and intercropping on his farmland with crop varieties such as coffee, vanilla, cassava, bananas, coco yams, cocoa and various tree species, which include mangoes, and jack fruit. 

“Intercropping helps in controlling pests, since they are natural enemies, they feed on each other, and in return they reduce hence leaving plants to thrive,” Magala narrates.

When asked about how he ensures soil fertility, Magala says he embraces the use of compost and green manure.  

“Here we do not burn waste, we put different kinds of waste together and cover them in manure banks, they decay and decompose. We later transfer them to the garden,” he says.

“We keep dry grass here and when it rains, we use it to cover the garden or what you can call mulching. This keeps the garden moist even in a dry season,” he added.

He notes that the threat posed by climate change can be curbed by agro-ecology practices as they form an impressive composition of fauna, a great step in restoring Uganda’s lost green cover which is vital in the rainfall formation cycle and warding off threats to life posed by air pollution. 

Farming in a sustainable way
Hakim Baliraine, a small-scale farmer and also the regional chairperson on the Board of Directors for Eastern & Southern Africa Small Scale Farmers Forum (ESAFF) Uganda, he advises nationals to look at the sustainability of farming practices as they determine the future of agriculture.  

“Industrial agriculture degrades soil health in several ways; when you apply chemical fertilisers to the soil, it only helps the current crop but does not fertilise the soil and the remaining residues affect the health of the soil.”

There are general concerns about nutritional diseases caused by the use of the various herbicides or pesticides used in farming these days.

Margaret Kisaakye, a smallscale farmer in Kimanya B village, Nyendo-Mukungwe Division Masaka City can attest this. She says that she was diagnosed with food poisoning, which doctors said could have been caused by eating food products sprayed with pesticides. 

“After having a meal with my family, I begun feeling unwell and the situation worsened gradually. I was thereafter admitted to Kitovu hospital in Masaka here, the doctors carried out all the necessary tests and it turned out to be food poisoning,” Kisaakye narrates. It was suspected, although not confirmed that the inorganically grown tomatoes she had bought from a nearby retail shop were the cause of poisoning, because she usually eats and grows organic food from her garden. 

In a bid to confirm whether such crops can lead to health complications, we interviewed Dr Jonathan Mulungi, a nutritionist and a senior medical practitioner at Masaka Regional Referral Hospital. 

The dangers of pesticides
He asserted that washing crop products sprayed with chemicals in most cases do not wash away all of these substances, though they can’t be seen with the naked eye, which poses a potent danger to human health once these products are eaten. 

He asserted that these diseases, which were quite unheard of and rare in the past have taken a toll on the citizenry due to consuming foods that are rich in cholesterol as a result of scientific modifications.  He also warned that the relentless application of synthetic fertilisers and other chemicals in gardens contaminates water bodies, as they are absorbed into water streams, negatively impacting people’s health and also endangering aquatic life. 

“When you have these chemicals on the crops, these things are washed down. Now this water at the end of it all is consumed by us, by birds, that means when you have a surge of these chemicals in the waters, in the plants, it may have a devastating effect.”  

However, Mr Steven Katende Serunjogi, a principal technician at Makerere University College of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences (CAES) told this publication, that poor use of fertilisers and pesticides by local farmers due to ignorance has produced more devastating effects than they would, if these farmers were properly sensitised on how to use them.  

“It is not an issue of saying that chemical fertilisers are bad, but you have to do soil testing first and know, what is the nature of your soil, which type are you going to use, what is missing in your soil, in what quantities is that nutrient missing, and which is the appropriate fertilisers you can use and when?”

Concerns 
There are general concerns about nutritional diseases caused by the use of the various herbicides or pesticides used in farming these days.

Margaret Kisaakye, a small scale farmer in Kimanya B village, Nyendo-Mukungwe Division Masaka City can attest this.

She says that she was diagnosed with food poisoning, which doctors said could have been caused by eating food products sprayed with pesticides.