Prime
Climate change effects hit us hard
Michael J Ssali
What you need to know:
When the farmers cry out for government’s help they seem to think that it will immediately dispatch a team of experts equipped with pesticides and run all over the country killing the deadly African Fall Army worm
Last month, in many parts of the country, there was a bit of rain and farmers planted crops thinking that the usual March-May rains had started.
However, they are now seeing their crops withering under the scorching sun. And, as if that was not enough, farmers across the country are crying out for government’s help (gavument etuyambe) to overcome the African Fall Army worm that is finishing off entire fields of maize, sorghum, and other green leafed plants including fodder grass.
When the farmers cry out for government’s help they seem to think that it will immediately dispatch a team of experts equipped with pesticides and run all over the country killing the deadly African Fall Army worm.
Agro-chemical companies are taking advantage of the situation and advertising different pesticides purported to be effective in controlling pests.
Yet the prices of all agricultural inputs including pesticides have recently became incredibly high.
Anyway in Uganda today pesticides seem to be the prioritised approach to fight pests despite being a growing threat to human, livestock, and environmental health.
A study conducted in 2018 by Pesticide, Health, and Environment (PHE) project and coordinated by Dr Aggrey Atuhaire revealed that 94.2 percent of all water sources in Uganda had detectable concentrations of a pesticide residue.
It also revealed that 88 percent of tomato farmers using the pesticide Mancozeb violate the label recommended dosage rates.
A total of 393 acute poisoning cases were registered in 43 of the 66 health facilities sampled.
But should pesticides be the preferred approach to the problem? Can pesticides protect crops from long droughts?
Through biotechnological solutions other African countries such as Kenya, Sudan, Burkina Faso, Nigeria, Malawi and Ethiopia among others are successfully growing crops that have been improved to withstand pests and to tolerate drought.
By trying the biotechnological approach to overcome our crop production bottlenecks, the government of Uganda would be helping its farmers much more meaningfully.
Mr Michael Ssali is a veteran journalist,
