Meteorological and Weather Authority becoming critical

The new National Meteorological and Weather Authority (NMWA) is quickly becoming an important agencies in adapting to climate change, fighting hunger and securing the future of farming and livestock rearing communities.
After a particularly dry spell in which temperatures hit record highs, and plant and animal life began to wilt and waste re-echoing the linguistic accuracy of Mukutulansanja (February), the rains opened up soon after February 15, the official start of the 2018 rainy season.
Rains are expected in most parts of the country before they quit the country in June 2018. That is just about 90 days of coverage in most of the country before another long spell kicks in; the Baganda of central region described the perilous summer heat as Ssebo Aseka (June) (Grandpa is laughing, meaning he has died of heatstroke), Kasambula (July) (the cereal grain stalks have dried) and Muwakanya (August) (Muwakanya- to describe doubt if it will rain again). It’s possible that Mutunda (September) referred to the time folks went to trade in the market.
What NMWA has accomplished in a short period is distinguishing between daily, monthly and quarterly patterns. The daily weather statistics are useful for everyday life and planning, but quarterly patterns are crucial for investment, allocation of labour and cash-flows. When should farmers access an activity? It should be at the end of the year (September) when they are in the market not in February when they should be racing to fight the toxic weeds and preparing to seed the ground with annual or perennial crops. The proverbial weather has created a subject citizens can talk about without causing the government any headache. I can count many friends of mine in the farming world with whom we don’t see eye to eye on many issues except the weather.
In a particularly hot stretch, one of my friends was worried about the deteriorating look of his banana plantation in Wakiso. A veteran features writer Kalungi Kabuye posted on social media his weather clock reporting 35C at Mulago roundabout, temperatures more commonly associated with Gulu where the mercury hit nearly 40C.
NMWA’s March-April-May (MAM) report has been eagerly awaited, and this time, the weather team nailed it. The rain shadow picked up slowly in Kigezi where it began raining earlier. By the time early release editions distributed by the Office of the Prime Minister became public this week, rains were raging in most parts of the country.
Shorter rains are posing challenges in the rural areas. For subsistence farmers, very few families can grow enough food to last the whole year as the shorter rains at the end of the year can barely produce one crop. As mentioned in an earlier column, the future of thirsty crops such as maize and rice is bleak. Maize cultivation is migrating to relatively wetter areas such as the Bunyoro plateau and the Toro highlands where a highly prized practice of twinning the seedlings pruning one third of the germinated crop holds promise.
Most of the hard-to-reach areas need basic storage facilities (ebyagi) to store grains in the wet months when rural roads become impassable. UNRA and the district local governments are not up to the task of keeping all weather roads passable. The intensity of the rains coupled with deforestation hurts areas with clay loams the most where roads simply disappear. Some of the more elaborate barns are in Lango where the barn is raised off the ground.
The wet seasons carries challenges for cash crops like coffee and cotton. It is a time of great promise on many shambas. Both of these crops require rain to mature.
Cotton lint gets destroyed by rain. Coffee berries need a combination of rain and sunshine to mature quickly and ripen. So a lot of off-season stock starts making its way to the markets in April, when drying and the road network is a major challenge.
For now, print a copy, display a copy at the Gombolola, read and understand the weather report.

Mr Ssemogerere is an Attorney-at-Law and an Advocate. [email protected]