‘Re-Open K’jong Cattle Markets’

Jun 24, 2002

Food security experts have called for the immediate lifting of the ban on the sale of livestock in the Karamoja region to enable the residents to sell animals to buy urgently needed food stocks, reports Patrick Luganda.

Food security experts have called for the immediate lifting of the ban on the sale of livestock in the Karamoja region to enable the residents to sell animals to buy urgently needed food stocks, reports Patrick Luganda. The experts warn that there is a danger of violence caused by the likely shortage of food due to poor harvests as the drought conditions increase.The World Food Programme officer for Karamoja, Ernest Mutanga, said the herdsmen normally sell off their livestock to buy food in times of severe food shortage. He said Moroto and Kotido districts were hit by drought that is likely to continue.“It is absolutely necessary to lift the ban before the food insecurity gets worse. Families need to sell animals to survive. The problem is that as it gets drier there will be less food available. Lack of food will result in an increase in raiding and less animals. youths are likely to become violent as the problem gets worse,” Mutanga said.A ban on the sale of livestock in Moroto and Kotido was ordered last month by Colonel Sula Semakula who is in charge of the Karamoja disarmament exercise. The Security Committee in Nakapiripirit district, chaired by the Resident District Commissioner, Peter Ken Lochap, also slapped a ban on livestock sales in the district last week.The officer-in-charge of the Early Warning Unit at the Ministry of Agriculture, Annunciata Hakuza, said the ministry had advised livestock farmers to reduce the animal stocks to manageable numbers because of the anticipated drought in most parts of the country.“The minister is sending out an advisory committee to the farming community, telling livestock farmers to sell off fattened and unproductive stock in light of the looming drought,” Hakuza said.Workers in the region said in addition to the persistent drought planting was interrupted by disarmament.Ends

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