Bad seeds hindering our production - Karimojong

KARAMOJA   FARMING   LAND CONFLICTS

Farmers in Abim district have said poor quality seeds and fake animals' drugs from the open market within the district are hindering food production.

They were discussing during a dialogue aimed at promoting access to land utilization as well as the right to use quality seeds.

Speaking at a one-day arid land development programme district feedback meeting on Saturday, farmers noted a slowdown in food production among households.

They also complained of late deliveries of agriculture inputs thus seeds by government saying they are brought when seasonal rains fade.

Other issues discussed included family land disputes; clans and inter-district boundary disputes that have taken centre stage in the sub-counties of Awach, Morulem and Lotuke.

A famer, Paul Menya, who hails from Nyarikidi village, Morulem sub-county, asked the district to consider solving land disputes that were mushrooming among the communities respectively.

‘Let the district come up with relevant means to solve land disputes that could lead to disuniting farmers," he said.

Menya appealed to the district local government to consider passing local laws aimed at protecting farmers from fake seed dealers.

The parish chief for Adea, Francis Opio in Morulem sub-county, asked the district to put in place by-law that provides minimum acreage cultivation per household to solve the underutilisation of land.

"Families have huge chunks of land, but blamed them of underutilisation," he noted.

Opio commended farmers for their struggle to sustain their families by growing food and selling excess to the neighbouring districts.

The Executive Director Arid Land Development Programme (ADP), Rev. Nelson Owili, urged land owners to adequately utilise it as a source of human survival.

‘By tilling land, we can grow crops and use excess food to sell for school fees and other economic benefits,' he said.

Rev. Owili decried the high rate of land conflicts in Morulem, Awach and Lotuke, saying the disputes were barriers to food security hence household food insecurity.

Presiding over the meeting, the district chairperson, Abim Jimmy Ochero, who was the chief Guest, commended ADP for the intervention, which he described as having solved several land disputes amicably.

He encouraged farmers not to lament, but work hard to achieve greater cash income from their land.

Ochero urged the communities to think positively by involving themselves into hard work to eradicate poverty back in their homes.

The Abim district farmers' feedback meeting held at Morulem girls' secondary school was attended by local leaders and development partners among others.