Govt should come to aid of struggling farmers

During the Easter break I visited an old friend who rears pigs. He has over 200 pigs, over 10 goats and more than 100 local free range chicken. 
He also has gardens of maize and beans and a banana plantation. He is a civil servant who has this as a side income after listening to several speeches from the President about wealth creation. 

This man is passionate. He personally digs in the gardens over the weekends and on public holidays. He drives to the farm twice or thrice a week after work to monitor the progress of his farm. The reason I visited him was because of the passion with which he used to talk about this farm.

However, when I visited at the weekend, the story was different. He had lost the passion, the vigour and the interest; he was crestfallen. He is stuck with close to 200 piglets; no one wants them. He used to supply piglets to National Agricultural Advisory Services, which currently isn’t buying them because of a shortage of funds. 

The prices for maize bran and broken maize as well as concentrates have skyrocketed, while the price for pork has gone discouragingly down. 
This friend used to sell old pigs to pig abattoirs but the buyers cheat farmers. Currently, these buyers give eight thousand per kilo. If they buy from the farm, they estimate the kilos and in the process they cheat the farmer. When a farmer decides to go to the abattoir where the kilos are correctly measured, these buyers take the head, the legs and the internal system, which they call engine, for free. 

They sell these parts while the farmer is watching with no clear justification why these parts should belong to them and not the farmer. When you calculate the fuel you use to transport the pigs to the abattoir, the time you spend and the way they cut the pigs, again you realise you are still losing. 
The unfortunate reality is that when he wants to buy pork, he buys a kilo at Shs13,000, which he sold at Shs8, 000. This is raw pork but when you want it fried, the price goes to Shs15,000 with three fingers of matooke, some stale cabbages and drops of royco.

Currently, a kilo of maize bran is between Shs750 and 800, broken maize is between Shs1400 and 1,500, while a 50kg bag of concentrates is at Shs220,000. With his over 200 pigs, at minimum feeding he needs Shs304,000 per day, which translates to Shs9,120,000 per month. This is way beyond his monthly salary. 
This amount excludes building shelter for his pigs, it excludes veterinary services, which are very essential, it excludes the fuel he uses to drive to his farm and it excludes labour for the farm workers and other farm needs. 

He also recently dug a well because there was a big water shortage at the farm, which cost him more than Shs7 million.  
When I visited, some of the piglets were in an unroofed structure and they braved the rain and the scotching sun. He can’t afford iron sheets at the moment. 
The tarpaulin he had used to roof was blown off by the wind. As a result, his pigs don’t look as healthy as they used to. He has been spared of the expense to buy food for his guard dogs because the dogs are feasting on dying piglets.

My friend recently sold eight pigs to balance his frustrated life. Some were pregnant, others abandoned piglets before weaning them while others were due for mating. He tells me he shed a tear as he saw them cut with premature piglets being thrown to the roaming dogs. 
During the golden days when he was supplying piglets to Naads, he got loans from a commercial bank and another one from a Sacco, which he used to buy two pieces of land where he was growing maize and beans to reduce on the expenses for pig feeds.
  
On another piece of land, he had planted grass, which he planned to feed to his expanding goats’ project. This grass is now being eaten by pigs. He is still struggling to pay the loans and to continue with farming as well as looking after his family.
He is also struggling with growing maize because the prices for drugs to spray have also gone through the roof. I accompanied him to the shops where he needed Weed Master, Jembe and Metrazine together with six kilogrammes of Longe 10 maize. He left the shop with a debt, which he promised to pay later. 

I wish there was a way the government would help farmers to find market for their products beyond the borders.
 I wish there was a way the government would buy this surplus produce and market them. I wish there was a way people would create wealth without frustration. 
                Reuben Twinomujuni,            [email protected]