Shifting weather patterns impact cassava yields

The Cassava crop that once covered more than 70 percent of the gardens as a leading commercial and food security crop in Nakasongola District has been reduced to less than half the production capacity in a period of seven years.
Both the farmers and authorities blame the new trend to the changing weather patterns, low prices and persistent diseases that have reduced the Nakasongola staple food to less than half production capacity.

The Sub counties of Wabinyonyi, Kalungi, Kalongo, Lwampanga and Kakooge that provided the bulk of the cassava crop have seen a downward curve in production. The farmers have reportedly shifted and opted for livestock production, maize cultivation among other farm produce. The cassava truck loads that once ferried the cassava tubers from the farmers to Kampala City among other areas are no more, Mr Joseph Kasirye, a farmer at Sasira village in Wabinyonyi Subcounty reveals.

The drop in production is not only blamed on the diseases and the low prices but the changing weather patterns partly blamed on the persistent dry weather conditions partly contributing to a fall in the cassava production, Kasirye notes.

“I have witnessed the slump in the cassava production in our areas partly due to the low prices, the diseases that strike the gardens and a shift in the weather pattern. I now cultivate six acres from the fifteen acres that I cultivated seven years ago,” he says.
A section of the farmers suspect the cassava mosaic disease and the brown streak disease, the most common cassava disease could have been accelerated by the sudden shift in the weather pattern and the disappearance of the indigenous disease resistant cassava varieties.

“The Tereka, Pala among other disease resistant cassava varieties that survived in the soils for a period of more than 15 months as the farmer looked for the market are long gone. The new varieties hardly survive for a period of 10 months,” Mr Faisal Ssemondo, a farmer at Buruli quarters in Nakasongola Town Council reveals.

For the conservatives, the Cassava crop for long played a staple food role for more than 70 percent of families in the greater Luweero area but Nakasongola District produced the bulk of the cassava crop. Ms Agnes Ssembatya, a retired primary school teacher and resident of Migyeera Town Council, prides in educating her children through the cultivation of cassava that she sold to earn the schools fees and University tuition. This was between 2001 and 2009 when the cassava crop earned her cash to sustain her family.

“I was a headmistress at different primary schools but a progressive farmer. The school holidays provided ample time for my family to cultivate the cassava gardens. We had little worry about the crop diseases and the crop fetched good prices. The story is very different now. The climate has changed from moderate rains to dry longer periods. Cassava production is at its lowest presently,” she says.

The Nakasongola District Farmers Association (NADIFA), an affiliate association of the Uganda National Farmers Federation clarifies that the cassava crop is faced with multiple challenges beyond the farmer management leading a downward curve in the production.

Ms Cathy Nasonko, the Projects Coordinator at NADIFA in Nakasongola reveals that the Cassava crop in Nakasongola is slowly being overtaken by several other emerging farm projects and crops including the maize production due to a number of factors.
During the long dry spells, the cassava gardens that could survive the high temperatures and hot sun, unlike the other vegetation, turned into grazing grounds for the straying livestock that was starving. This was repeatedly done and the cassava farmers that owned hundreds of hectares gave up the gardens.

“The cassava that survived the drought was destroyed by the stray cattle herds repeatedly as the dry spell seasons progressed in parts of Nakasongola. The dry resistant varieties also became extinct. Several of the farmers have recently turned to maize growing,” she says.
But NADIFA has not given up. The Cassava crop has the ability to provide a sustainable food supply security chain in times of scarcity. In coordination with the Nakasongola District Local Government, National Agriculture Research Organization (NARO), Namulonge Crop Resources Research Institute (NaCRRI) among other stakeholders disease resistant cassava varieties are being developed to meet the farmer needs in Nakasongola.

The farmer diversification into other viable farming projects on top of the cassava production may not quickly help in quickly redeeming the cassava production chain lost in the past five years. The low prices for the cassava tubers and the slow value chain cassava processing plants established in Nakasongola, in the past are initiatives that need to be scrutinized, NADIFA officials reveal.
Mr Stanly Senku, a farmer who has grown cassava for the last 30 years in Wabinyonyi Subcounty shares the vast farming experience in the cassava crop but doubts the capacity of the different stakeholders to revive the cassava boom in Nakasongola District.

Senku believes that the falling prices for the cassava crop may further dampen the prospect of ever reviving the cassava crop as a leading food security and cash earner crop in Nakasongola District.
Checking drought spell effect;
While many farmers got introduced to effective methods of guarding their respective gardens against the effects of drought by digging water troughs between rows, a bigger number of farmers could not sustain the new technologies leading to farm losses. But Mr Senku who has been cultivating the cassava crop at Muchumu village in Wabinyonyi Subcounty insists that the falling prices have dampened efforts by farmers to grow the cassava crop.

“Many farmers had tried to adapt to the new farming technologies by planting drought resistant cassava varieties but the falling cassava prices continue to demoralize the farmers. A kilogram of cassava now fetches between Shs400 and Shs300. This is the lowest in a very long time,” he says.
The falling cassava prices are very discouraging. The establishment of a starch manufacturing plant that would absorb the excess cassava produced by the farmers has not helped much. The prices for the cassava fetch very low prices at the factory, Mr Senku adds.

Impact of climate change;
A section of farmers in Nakasongola believe that the unending diseases that affect the cassava crop could be a result of a shift in the weather patterns that favors the multiplication of the disease viruses.
Ms Jamila Nakiyimba, a farmer and the Vice LC3 Chairperson at Lwampanga Town Council in Nakasongola District says that before the shift in the weather patterns, farmers cultivated the cassava crop without incurring any diseases.
“In the early 2000 when I started growing Cassava, the crop was free from disease attacks. I believe that the dry conditions brought about by the clearing of the mother vegetation are providing a favorable breeding ground for the cassava brown streak virus,” she says.

Agriculturalists speak;
Dr Stella Rose Nekesa, an agriculturalist and research consultant in Tropical Agro Farm Development Initiatives explains that Cassava like any other tropical crop is prone to the effects of climate change.
“Nakasongola is among the cattle corridor areas that have experienced the mass destruction of the vegetation cover and are bound to experience the effects of climate change. The Cassava brown streak disease is favored by the warm weather conditions that characterise the present weather conditions in Nakasogola District,” she says.
Farmers need to be helped to get well researched cassava varieties that suit the recent weather pattern changes, Dr Nekesa revealed in an interview.

Nakasongola District Production Officer Ms Sarah Nakamya says they, in coordination with stakeholders in the agricultural sector, recommend the planting of the approved new cassava varieties that are resistant to the Cassava Mosaic and the Brown Streak viruses.
“We advise our farmers to plant the recommended cassava varieties proved to be resistant to the disease viruses. These varieties include Narocass 1, UG 193 among other new but approved varieties,” she says.

Cassava crop is among the widely grown food crops in parts of Uganda and staple food for a big percentage of the population in Uganda. The Ministry of Agriculture Animal Industry and Fisheries Atlas ranks the Cassava crop, second in production among the food crops grown in the Country.
While Nakasongola produced an estimated 1.4 million tons of cassava in 2013, the production according to the District statistics has reduced to an estimated 650,000 tons in a period of seven years because of the different challenges including farmer diversification. The farmers are shifting to different farm diversification strategies, the officials say.

TIP
Mitigating Impact. Cassava crop is among the widely grown food crops in parts of Uganda and staple food for a big percentage of the population in Uganda. The Ministry of Agriculture Animal Industry and Fisheries Atlas ranks the Cassava crop, second in production among the food crops grown in the Country.

While Nakasongola produced an estimated 1.4 million tons of cassava in 2013, the production according to the District statistics has reduced to an estimated 650,000 tons in a period of seven years because of the different challenges including farmer diversification. The farmers are shifting to different farm diversification strategies, the officials say.