Janet launches Karamoja farming project

Apr 09, 2009

THE planting season has started in Karamoja region. However, this season will be different as the Government focuses on large-scale food production to stop the region’s dependence on food aid.

By Anne Mugisa

THE planting season has started in Karamoja region. However, this season will be different as the Government focuses on large-scale food production to stop the region’s dependence on food aid.

Opening the season at Nasinyonoit village in Matany sub-county, Morulinga in Moroto district recently, Mrs. Janet Museveni, the Karamoja state minister, said the region was capable of producing enough food for its people.

She has been rallying the local people to grow more food and urged them to take advantage of the tractors, which the Government has given every district in the region, to open up large gardens.
Traditionally, the Karimojong, who are mainly cattle keepers, use a small hand-hoe which hampers their ability to produce food.

Besides the tractors, the Government is also providing maize, beans, sorghum, cowpeas and sunflower seeds.

Mrs. Museveni said she would supervise the farming activities in the region to ensure government interventions were exploited to ensure food security.

The World Food Programme warned in January that the food shortage in Karamoja would worsen this year. It said charities would focus on Karamoja because of its tenuous food situation, exacerbated by the widespread failure of the latest harvest, with yields 30% of the expected output.

The agency said prospects for improved food security and nutrition were poor as the region was facing its third successive failed harvest. Karamoja has one main harvest in August to September.

The food agency projects that the number of people under its care will rise to 950,000 from about 700,000.

Stanlake Samkange, the country representative, recently said: “We will need food aid because many places in Karamoja did not harvest anything because of the worsening climatic conditions.”

He said the agency would soon launch an emergency operation to assist about 900,000 people for a year.

The Karamoja food insecurity has been particularly critical for children, according to World Vision, another charity operating in the region.

It said mothers travel extremely long distances to find work in exchange for food. Some children fend for themselves, it said.

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