Minister roots for cotton growing

By Ibrahim Kasita
THE state minister for agriculture has rallied farmers in northern Uganda to revive cotton growing to alleviate poverty and improve their household income.

Aggrey Bagiire pointed out that all other regions in Uganda had many cash crops like cotton, tea, coffee, tobacco and cocoa, the northern region had only cotton as a cash crop.

“Cotton used to be the mainstay cash crop in this region, but people no longer grow it. Why?” he wondered.

“You (farmers) need to grow food crops to ensure food security as well as cotton to get money to meet your household needs.”

The minister was addressing a farmers’ meeting during a fact-finding mission in the cotton growing areas in Lira, Pader, Kitgum and Lamwo districts.

Bagiire pointed out that the Government had provided farm inputs to revive cotton growing to empower the farmers financially.

“Seeds were given to farmers for free.
“The quality of the seeds was good and they were delivered in time, resulting in about 99% germination rate.

“Pumps and pesticides prices were subsidised by 50% in Lango, while farmers in Acholi got them for free. This trend will continue,” he promised.

The minister said with good agronomical practices and fair global cotton prices, national cotton production will increase and improve farmers’ income.

The indicative cotton price for this season is sh900 per kilogramme from sh800 last year.

Bagiire, however, advised the farmers to spray their cotton fields with pesticides to control pests and diseases if they want to get better yields.

“A farmer who sprays his cotton garden with the pesticides earns five times more compared to those practising organic cotton farming,” he said.

“An acre of conventional cotton yields between 1,500kg and 2,000kg, while one gets about 150kg from an organic cotton garden of the same size. “This is unfair to farmers. You should watch out for those who want to exploit you.”

With conventional cotton growing, farmers use synthetic fertilisers and pesticides, while in organic cotton growing farmers rely on natural inputs without using pesticides or fertilisers.

This results into low yields because the crop is highly susceptible to pests and diseases, the minister added.

Bagiire lauded the Cotton Development Organisation (CDO) field officers, saying they were on the ground to sensitise and offer technical advice to farmers on proper crop husbandry.

John Odit, the Erute South constituency MP, said the seeds distributed were “excellent.”

“On behalf of the farmers, we are happy with the Government’s strategic intervention of distributing quality and reliable seeds to farmers in time,” he said.

“We also want to thank the Government and CDO for being at hand whenever we need them.”

Odit, who is also a Uganda Peoples’ Congress (UPC) die-hard, added: “We must respect what the Government has done to improve our people’s lives. This is good for development.”

Statistics from the Cotton Development Organisation northern region field office says production will be about 30,000 bales, from 22,000 bales last season.
Last year, national cotton production stood at 125,000 bales, from 60,000 the previous year.