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Busoga sugarcane farmers advised on alternative crops
Women of Kiige IDI Parents, an income-generating project, grow passion fruits in a garden. PHOTO / SAM CALEB OPIO
What you need to know:
- Leaders have offered solutions to rid farmers of a crop they claim has not only led to food insecurity and famine, but also adverse climate change effects.
Farmers in Busoga Sub-region have been advised on growing alternative crops after the market of sugarcane drastically dropped.
Leaders have offered solutions to rid farmers of a crop they claim has not only led to food insecurity and famine, but also adverse climate change effects.
Mr Richard Musenero, the Kamuli District Production Officer, told Daily Monitor in an interview on Tuesday that they are promoting the growing of crops such as cocoa, citrus fruits, coffee and watermelon.
“Depending on management, a cocoa farmer will be able to get at least Shs8m in a year compared to Shs500,000 earned from sugarcane during the same period,” Mr Musenero said.
He also said cocoa growing promotes reforestation, which combats the adverse effects of climate change as it requires tree shades to thrive.
Dr Fred Kabale, the Buyende District Production Officer, urged farmers to embrace avocado, passion fruits and watermelon growing.
Mr Kabale said these are high value and short-term crops which do not cause environmental degradation.
“In Buyende, we are encouraging and introducing bee keeping with involvement of tree planting to recover trees and secure some grazing areas since Buyende is mostly in a cattle corridor,” Dr Kabale said.
Mr Bazalaki Nantatya, the Iganga District agricultural officer, said commercialisation of coffee is the best alternative.
“Coffee was Busoga’s main cash crop and has ready market both locally and internationally. I also advise that maize is grown as well since it is profitable and can give good yields because it is cheaper to manage one acre compared to sugarcane,” Mr Bazalaki said.
He added: “Coffee growing is very profitable and has few risks as compared to sugarcane where a farmer has to use fertilisers. With coffee farming, even a poor person can pursue because it involves less expenses.”
Mr Bazalaki accused promoters of sugarcane growing in Busoga of being aggressive towards extension workers, especially when it comes to promoting other alternatives.
“We have had several interventions urging farmers to drop sugarcane growing but extension workers and middlemen keep misinforming the farmers,” he said.
The Namutumba District Production Officer, Mr Apollo Musita, urges farmers to grow rice and bananas.
“Growing Upland rice is very productive and needs to be upgraded through mechanised farming; the only way of doing so is by encouraging farmers to go into intensive farming because they have been used to growing rice in wetlands,” he said.
Mr Musita said the nature of Busoga soils favour banana growing if done intensively and with continued irrigation.
Mr Sam Bakaki, the Kamuli District Environment Officer, described sugarcane as a ‘selfish crop’, while the Kamuli Resident District Commissioner, Mr Robert Mutemo, described it as a ‘liability’.
“Storms have destroyed homes where sugarcane growing is intense because of the bare grounds and clearance of trees; and since it is a one-area crop, farmers can’t intercrop,” Mr Bakaki said.
Statistics show that sugarcane prices have declined by 200 percent in the last five years impacting farmers’ income with implication of poverty given that sugarcane is a perennial crop that takes more than 18 months to mature.
Poverty
Uganda Bureau of Statistics 2020 figures show that Busoga has 1.2 million poor persons of whom 0.4 million are living in food poverty.
Compiled by Philip Wafula, Sam Opio Caleb & Ronald Seebe
