UPC wants govt to ban exportation of food

Apr 26, 2017

The party believes that the little that is harvested in this current situation should be stored and only sold within lest the situation will worsen thus serious food insecurity in the nation.

UPC spokesperson Michael Osinde

The Uganda People's Congress (UPC) has asked the government to halt the exportation of food from Uganda to other regions, especially now when the country is facing food insecurity due to drought and pests that have since led to the destruction so many crops thus insufficient food.

The party believes that the little that is harvested in this current situation should be stored and only sold within lest the situation will worsen thus serious food insecurity in the nation.

"There are some Ugandans who believe that the little food we get should be taken elsewhere like to South Sudan. We need to stop this and not allow anybody to export food at this point in time. If there is a challenge in East Africa, then who are we to export the little food that we have got," said Michael Osinde, the party spokesperson.

Osinde made these remarks yesterday during the weekly press briefing at the party headquarters at Uganda House in Kampala.

The party also asked government to take charge and subsidize on the prices of the Rocket and Striker pesticides. The two pesticides were suggested to farmers for spraying when scientific tests found that for the first time, the fall armyworm species was attacking crops in Uganda.

On the local market, a liter for each of the two pesticides costs about sh33, 000.  One liter can be used to spray two-and-a-half acres of the affected crops. A 20ml of the pesticide is mixed with 20 liters of water.

"These local distributers must be taking advantage of the situation and it is against this background that we call upon government to take charge," Osinde said.

"By the time people are resorting to termites as food, that means they cannot afford the pesticide since they cannot buy food, how then can such a person afford to pay over sh.50, 000 for the pesticides," he asserted.

First detected in three districts of Kayunga, Kasese and Bukedea last year, the fall armyworm has since withered crop fields in over 60 districts. The pest has also drawn in the attention of the entire East African Community (EAC) region as the pest ravages maize fields in neighboring Kenya and Rwanda.

The outbreak of fall armyworms comes at a time when the region is grappling with low crop yields resulting from prolonged drought over the last two agricultural seasons.

In Kenya, the fall armyworms are reported to have invaded at least seven counties, worsening the food security situation already riled by severe crop failure due to drought.

"When you look at the situation in the Karamoja, you realize that the issue of food security has hit the country terribly. Besides the drought and famine, it's quite unfortunate that the fall army

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