Butebo residents seek relief food after devastating dry spell
“It affected the planting and generally the cultivation for four consecutive seasons. As I talk now, the situation is pathetic and deplorable. You realise that most of the vulnerable are the elderly and the low-income earners who are going without food. To make matters worse, school-going children sleep hungry without food, and they are expected to go to school the following day,” Oduchu illustrated.
Deputy Speaker Thomas Tayebwa advised Oduchu to work with local leaders to ensure that the affected households are properly assessed. (New Vision/Files)
BUTEBO - Residents of Butebo district have appealed to the government for relief food and fast-maturing crop varieties following a devastating dry spell that has affected several households.
The area Member of Parliament (MP), Fred Mudukoi Oduchu, made the appeal during plenary on Thursday, October 29, 2026.
“It affected the planting and generally the cultivation for four consecutive seasons. As I talk now, the situation is pathetic and deplorable. You realise that most of the vulnerable are the elderly and the low-income earners who are going without food. To make matters worse, school-going children sleep hungry without food, and they are expected to go to school the following day,” Oduchu illustrated.
“I therefore request the concerned office to provide posho (maize flour) and beans for affected families. We also request the supply of fast-growing crops like maize and seeds, and provision of free and high-yielding cassava cuttings to solve the situation,” he implored.
Government respond
“But only the vulnerable ones. We are not able to provide food for the entire budget. We do not have that budget. But we try to come in to support the vulnerable people, and we will be happy to do so,” Aber assured
Deputy Speaker Thomas Tayebwa advised Oduchu to work with local leaders to ensure that the affected households are properly assessed.
“Because you will hear others saying I was left out because I didn’t support him. Why can’t the CAO (Chief Administrative Officer), the technical people, do their work? Don’t you think it would work better?” Tayebwa opined
“That is exactly the procedure. It has to be the CAO to submit. Not the member of parliament,” Aber concurred.
MPs raise concerns over farmers' losse
Adrine Katusiime Mwebesa, the Sheema district woman MP (NRM), said many of those affected by the dry spell were farmers who rented land and spent their limited earnings on seeds and labour
Mwebesa asked the government to explain the measures it had put in place to protect the environment and support rural farmers who were increasingly vulnerable to climate change
“What is the government doing, or which measures has the government put in place, especially on the ecosystem that is being degraded,” Katusiime probed.
Agriculture ministry responds
Agriculture state minister Desire Muhooza said that although climate change generally fell under the Ministry of Water, the government was working on irrigation initiatives.
“We are working on a project of irrigation. We want to make sure that at least between 1,000 and 500 farmers in each district are connected. But also, I really want to call upon my colleagues in this House that it is also upon us as leaders to really help the government and step in and try to sensitise our people,” Muhooza said.
“Because of some of this degradation she has just raised, it is not caused by aliens; it is us. It is our relatives, our friends, and it is we who have been abusing the environment, and it is also now responding,” she added.