Pain as hunger hits Teso

Ngora/Soroti/Serere- Farmers in Teso sub-region are counting loses after another failed crop yield this year as a result of a prolonged dry spell.

Rural communities in some parts of the sub-region are now struggling to feed their families and cannot afford a single meal a day following the previous long dry spells that had an impact on farmer’s crops.

Mr Apollo Ewidu, the chairperson of Bugondo Sub-county in Serere District, told Sunday Monitor in an interview early this week that hundreds of people in his sub-county sleep on empty stomachs, while others are having only one meal a day.

He added that by this time under normal circumstances, people would be harvesting potatoes and maize, but in the past six months, there have been limited rains.

“People are now planting with hope that the rain will continue through December,” he said. He added that although rainfall has partly returned to some parts of the sub-region, it is not enough.

Mr Ken Aujal, the head teacher of Kagwara Primary School in the neighbouring Labwor Sub-county, said the turnout for pupils has continued to decline since most of them have chosen to go fishing at Kagwara Landing Site as result of food shortage.
Late last term, the school authorities reported a dramatic decline in the number of pupils from 1,034 to 800.

Mr Aujal said the feeding programme for pupils has been affected since parents can no longer afford to contribute beans and posho for their children’s breakfast and lunch.

Serere District production officer Andrew Oboi said majority of households in the district are involved in agriculture.

“When we had much rain, water-logging caused rotting of the root crops in gardens, premature cereals and rotting of harvested grains and this has highly impacted on food security,” he said.
He said most crops such as ground nuts, millet, sorghum, cow-peas and maize that most local farmers depend on for cash and food had withered barely after the first weeding, leaving households with a hard choice to make between bringing food in the house and cash for other essential needs.

The district chief administrative officer, Mr Alex Kwizera, said a recent assessment conducted on the extent of crop failure in the district indicates that areas along the Bisina wetland system had been affected most.

He said since 2007 when the sub-region suffered serious flooding, most parts of Ngora are still struggling to recover from the losses.

Food prices in most areas prone to water-logging have also escalated in the last three months, forcing some households to limit themselves to one meal a day.

A basin full of dry cassava chips used for making flour now goes for Shs15,000 from the Shs7,000 it traded at last December.

The officer-in-charge of investigations at Ngora Central Police Station, Mr James Okodel, said cases of food theft from the garden are on the rise.

“A widow came to us crying that unknown people had uprooted almost half of her cassava from the garden. This is new phenomenon aggravated by the food shortage,” Mr Okodel said.

The Ngora District chairperson, Mr Bernard Eumu, said the district has embarked on mobilising households on the need to utilise the available food stocks sparingly.

Mr Peter Ebau, chairperson of Gweri Sub-county in Serere District, shares the same plight, saying about 300 homes, especially in Omugenya Parish are facing food shortages.

“The shortages are a result of failed crops due to the dry spell that besieged the region,” he narrated.

Mr Silver Ongom, the production officer for Katakwi District, said they are coming up with village ordinances to monitor the usage of the limited food. He said there is need to control the sale of the little food produced, saying hundreds of gardens of cereals in the district withered during the previous dry spell.

The paramount chief of Iteso, Emorimor Augustine Osuban, called on government to introduce irrigation incentives for farmers in the region to handle the problem.

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