Warehouse systems the solution to famine
Jul 15, 2009
According to various media reports, many parts of Uganda, including the Teso and Karamoja regions, are facing famine. While the present situation is being blamed on prolonged drought, in the past floods have been the culprit.
By Alex Rwego
According to various media reports, many parts of Uganda, including the Teso and Karamoja regions, are facing famine. While the present situation is being blamed on prolonged drought, in the past floods have been the culprit.
This famine has not gone unnoticed. The President has personally visited the affected areas and relief organisations like the Red Cross are mobilising the private sector to contribute to this just cause.
The question to be asked though is: “Will this be the last time that these or another part of the country will need this support? The answer is no.So how can we prepare for future disasters?
An appropriate response would be multi-pronged including improved seeds, better prediction of weather, irrigation and strategic food reserves. Obviously, while some of these could be of short-term nature, others will be long-term interventions and how to intervene can best be decided by the appropriate stakeholders.
Presently, we do not have national food reserves. The famine itself is evidence enough that the individual homesteads do not have (sufficient) food reserves. Granaries are now something of the past and rural households do not save enough money in order to get themselves out of such dilemmas. To stop food shortages and also respond better when the shortages do occur, the Warehouse Receipt System (WRS) can be used as one of the interventions. Under the WRS, depositors store their commodities (for example grains) with a licensed warehouse keeper.
The warehouse keeper guarantees full out turn to the depositor and under the WRS Act 2006, has the duty to ensure that the commodities do not deteriorate while in storage.
Currently there are three licensed warehouses for grains in Uganda: Agroways in Jinja, Nyakatonzi Growers Cooperative Union in Kasese and Masindi Seed and Grain Growers in Masindi. Many prospective warehouse keeper have shown interest to do grain warehousing under WRS but unfortunately, most of them do not have the pre-requisites for licensing.
So, how would the WRS or licensed warehouses fit into the disaster preparedness plan? Farmers tend to sell their produce soon after harvest for various reasons, including lack of proper storage. These warehouses would serve as food reserves. Grains would be safely kept in the licensed warehouse without fear of deterioration or pilferage.
Moreover, when disaster does strike, response can be easier as we will know how many warehouses each region has and what type of foods they are carrying in what quantities. Response may be as quick as “please load 100 metric tonnes of maize from warehouse X in Soroti town to Gombolola Y in Amuria.â€
The Government would, at the beginning of every season, allocate funds to procure and store stocks in these warehouses. These reserves would then be used to feed the people in the affected areas.
Within only two years of warehouse sytems going to the ground, significant achievements would have been made.
Since the law is already in place, we, at the Uganda Commodity Exchange, have now embarked on formulating a new strategic plan that will see at least 10 model warehouses built strategically around the country.
They will have a capacity of over 50,000 metric tonnes and we believe this will make Uganda food secure in the future. With the support of the Government and the donor community, this will happen.
The writer is the manager of the Uganda Commodity Exchange
According to various media reports, many parts of Uganda, including the Teso and Karamoja regions, are facing famine. While the present situation is being blamed on prolonged drought, in the past floods have been the culprit.
This famine has not gone unnoticed. The President has personally visited the affected areas and relief organisations like the Red Cross are mobilising the private sector to contribute to this just cause.
The question to be asked though is: “Will this be the last time that these or another part of the country will need this support? The answer is no.So how can we prepare for future disasters?
An appropriate response would be multi-pronged including improved seeds, better prediction of weather, irrigation and strategic food reserves. Obviously, while some of these could be of short-term nature, others will be long-term interventions and how to intervene can best be decided by the appropriate stakeholders.
Presently, we do not have national food reserves. The famine itself is evidence enough that the individual homesteads do not have (sufficient) food reserves. Granaries are now something of the past and rural households do not save enough money in order to get themselves out of such dilemmas. To stop food shortages and also respond better when the shortages do occur, the Warehouse Receipt System (WRS) can be used as one of the interventions. Under the WRS, depositors store their commodities (for example grains) with a licensed warehouse keeper.
The warehouse keeper guarantees full out turn to the depositor and under the WRS Act 2006, has the duty to ensure that the commodities do not deteriorate while in storage.
Currently there are three licensed warehouses for grains in Uganda: Agroways in Jinja, Nyakatonzi Growers Cooperative Union in Kasese and Masindi Seed and Grain Growers in Masindi. Many prospective warehouse keeper have shown interest to do grain warehousing under WRS but unfortunately, most of them do not have the pre-requisites for licensing.
So, how would the WRS or licensed warehouses fit into the disaster preparedness plan? Farmers tend to sell their produce soon after harvest for various reasons, including lack of proper storage. These warehouses would serve as food reserves. Grains would be safely kept in the licensed warehouse without fear of deterioration or pilferage.
Moreover, when disaster does strike, response can be easier as we will know how many warehouses each region has and what type of foods they are carrying in what quantities. Response may be as quick as “please load 100 metric tonnes of maize from warehouse X in Soroti town to Gombolola Y in Amuria.â€
The Government would, at the beginning of every season, allocate funds to procure and store stocks in these warehouses. These reserves would then be used to feed the people in the affected areas.
Within only two years of warehouse sytems going to the ground, significant achievements would have been made.
Since the law is already in place, we, at the Uganda Commodity Exchange, have now embarked on formulating a new strategic plan that will see at least 10 model warehouses built strategically around the country.
They will have a capacity of over 50,000 metric tonnes and we believe this will make Uganda food secure in the future. With the support of the Government and the donor community, this will happen.
The writer is the manager of the Uganda Commodity Exchange