Covid-19: Farmers can observe SOPs

Farmers may not have qualified to benefit from the government’s donation of Shs100,000 given out to vulnerable households as subsidy during the ongoing Covid-19 induced lockdown, but they are among the categories of people severely hit by the pandemic.

In their trucks and pick-ups the farmers can drive across districts to get farm inputs and to transport their products to far off towns and markets. However their general complaint nowadays is that the prices for their commodities have dropped so low that they don’t make profits any more.

Low prices

“A tray of eggs that we used to sell at around Shs9,000 now goes for less than Shs7,000,” said Mr Joseph Ssemukulungwa, a prominent poultry and coffee farmer in Lwengo District.

During the lockdown, most businesses in urban centres are closed and town dwellers must think twice every time they have to spend money. The prices for food crops such as matooke have dropped, resulting in reduced profits for farmers.

“But to us such restrictions and lockdowns are not new,” said Vincent Kakeeto a cattle keeper at Kyanjale, Kabonera Sub-county, Masaka District. “There are times when entire districts are put under quarantine for months and we cannot move cattle, swine, sheep, and goats from one district to another when such diseases that have no specific treatment like foot and mouth disease strike. And it is not just the animals; sometimes cow dung and milk are not to be transported beyond quarantine boundaries. The restrictions are intended to curb the spread of the disease which normally is not really fatal but greatly weakens livestock for long periods.”

SOPs on farm

Mr Eden Kamugisha, an eminent farmer at Kisagazi Village, Mukungwe Sub-county, Masaka District told Seeds of Gold: “Farmers have always practiced particular agricultural standard operation procedures –SOPs--- For example they should not encourage visitors entering poultry houses before disinfecting themselves by stepping into disinfectant solution always available at the entrance. In fact they should leave their own boots at the entrance door and put on the boots found at the farm. At some farms all visitors are sprayed with disinfectant almost similar to what takes place at Covid-19 clinics. Many livestock diseases are extremely infectious and one of the reasons fences are constructed around paddocks on a farm is to allow for separation of sick animals from healthy ones.”

Poultry farms which employ people who always come to work and return to their homes must also ensure that every morning they step into the disinfectant solution at the farm entrance and to leave their boots there to avoid transferring possible infections from any local birds kept in their homes.

This is exactly the same reason that under the ongoing lockdown regulations the people working in urban markets were directed to spend the night right there instead returning to their homes where they risked getting the Covid-19 infection and carrying it over to the market and vice-versa.

At the farm all workers should be directed to wear a mask and to avoid working in proximity with one another.

Even before the arrival of the Covid-19 pandemic, frequent washing of hands was practiced by farmers since they are food handlers and yet they deal with pesticides, herbicides, and acaricides apart from living in an environment littered with livestock beddings and droppings.

Wearing of masks has always been encouraged for farmers applying or handling agricultural chemicals to avoid inhaling them since they are actually poisons.

Good hygiene

Good hygiene is important for farmers not only because they must produce clean and safe food but also because they risk injury to their personal lives arising from exposure to agro-chemicals, and livestock excreta.

It has become quite common practice these days for people to carry sanitiser containers with them to ensure that whenever they touch surfaces they are not sure of, they disinfect their hands if there are no hand-washing facilities.

Many crop diseases quickly spread from one plant to another and farmers have often taken meticulous measures, almost similar to those applied in the fight against Covid-19, to control the crop diseases.

Disinfect tools

For example Mr Walakira Ssendi, a banana farmer at Kabonera Village in Masaka District controls the spread of banana bacterial disease by constantly disinfecting his tools.

“Each one of my labourers must carry a small container of Jik solution when working in the banana plantation,” he told Seeds of Gold.

After using a knife or any other sharp object on one banana plant, the labourer must dip that object into the Jik solution to disinfect it before using it to work on another plant.

This measure also applies to the traders who come to buy the bananas at Walakira’s farm. “Nobody is allowed to come with their pangas to use for banana harvesting in my plantation since I am not sure of where they have been used.

“They must use my pangas and strictly observe my rules of disinfecting the pangas by dipping them into the Jik solution after every banana bunch harvest,” says Walakira.

Coffee farmers too are warned against using sharp objects mindlessly since they can easily spread the coffee wilt disease (CWD). After cutting down a tree killed by CWD the farmer must disinfect the tool used to cut the tree by holding it over burning fire for some minutes or by dipping it into Jik solution before using it to trim or to prune another tree or else CWD will be transferred from the dead plant to a healthy one.

A blessing in disguise

Lockdowns, quarantines, and standard operation procedures (SOPs) seem to be cross-cutting necessary evils that we have to undergo to get rid of highly infectious, human, livestock, and crop diseases that have no specific cure. For livestock and human infectious diseases, vaccination has nearly always proven preventive.

For plants, these days, through biotechnological research, genetic engineering or genetic modification (GM) has been discovered to protect crops from destruction by pests. GM technology is gaining more and more support from farmers in many countries across the globe as it has been discovered to not only protect crops from pests and diseases but also to increase production and profits.

Take note

Beware

Many livestock diseases are extremely infectious and one of the reasons fences are constructed around paddocks on a farm is to allow for separation of sick animals from healthy ones.

Use sanitiser

It has become quite common practice these days for people to carry sanitiser containers with them to ensure that whenever they touch surfaces they are not sure of, they disinfect their hands if there are no hand-washing facilities.