200 Wealth Creation farmers can’t find market for produce

More than 200 model farmers in Kaliro District, who acquired citrus fruits and mango seedlings under Operation Wealth Creation (OWC) programme, have asked the government to find market for their produce.
The farmers, owning between two and eight acres of citrus fruit plantations each, received the seedlings between 2015 and 2017.

Mr Charles Wambuzi, who owns eight acres of mango and orange gardens, said: “When I check my records, and amount of money spent on spraying and buying fertilizers I see that I am only making losses. I feel depressed because I have not found market for my first harvest.”
“Government should secure markets for our produce if the beneficiaries are to realise the objectives of the project. For example, there is need for a juice factory in Busoga. In two years, there will be plenty of fruits that will be wasted away,” he added.
Mr Godfrey Nsaiga, 50, another farmer who owns a four-acre garden of fruits, on Saturday said he acquired the seedlings in 2014 and harvested about 100 sacks of oranges in 2017 but due to lack of ready market, he ended up selling each sack (about 90 kilogrammes) at Shs30,000 making a loss of more than Shs100,000.

Besides that, the fruit farmers noted that last year’s prolonged drought affected their harvest with many of their crops drying up.
However, they have asked government to consider providing them with irrigation incentives at subsidized prices.
Other farmers revealed that they have failed to spray their fruits due to lack of financial support. But government, under the project, supplied some insecticides and fungicides to fight mainly Aphids, small, highly reproductive insects which feed by sucking sap from plants.

The Kaliro senior agriculture engineer, Mr Latif Wamtimba, said the farmers in the district have a negative attitude towards work and believe in rudimentary ways of solving issues.
“We emphasised and demonstrated to them how to plant the seedlings with the crafted joinery part outside but they instead dig deep holes which expose plants to pests and diseases from the soil,” Mr Wamtimba said.
The Kaliro OWC officer, Maj Stephen Kivumbi, confirmed the challenges and said the concerned authorities are addressing them.

“Government cannot come up with a project without planning where beneficiaries are going to sell or market their products,” he said.
The special presidential assistant on OWC, Ms Hellen Namutamba, said despite the challenges, Kaliro District has a record of successful farmers under the project.
“I acknowledge there are challenges and I have personally received them after recently visiting some of the farmers in the area,” Ms Namutamba said.
Efforts to get a comment from the OWC deputy coordinator, Lt Gen Charles Angina, yesterday were futile as he neither answered our repeated calls nor returned them.

OTHER ISSUES

Last month, farmers in Mbulamuti Sub-county, Kamuli District, said the Friesian cows distributed under Operation Wealth Creation programme have failed to conceive through artificial insemination, a technique devised for the genetic improvement of farm animals. The farmers said they spend a lot of money on using the method to fertilise the animals yet they never conceive, which has forced them to opt for the natural fertilisation method.

[email protected]