As we encourage more and more Ugandans to embrace farming, we need to reduce the bottlenecks that make agriculture a highly-risky and unattractive venture.
Much has been said about drought and lack of finance, among other problems, standing in the way of potential farming success, but this week brought out one more challenge – disease burden.
As the farming community was getting to terms with the outbreak of the avian influenza or bird flu in Wakiso and Masaka areas, more bad news broke to the effect that the deadly African swine fever had broken out, also around Masaka.
Poultry and piggery farmers are now, understandably, on tenterhooks. If bird flu spreads from wild birds to domestic ones, let alone human beings, chicken farmers in the affected areas will be counting heavy losses. The same applies to pig farmers. The real possibility of a farmer losing hundreds or thousands of their birds or pigs at once scares the hell out of potential farmers and investors in the sector.
Crop farmers are not spared this scare. Besides prolonged drought being their worst nightmare, they must contend with the possibility of their crops being infected by the myriad of crop diseases – from banana bacterial wilt to coffee wilt to cassava mosaic virus.
These risks, which ultimately combine with other factors to determine whether a farmer makes losses or profits, call for robust interventions to safeguard the sector.
The authorities concerned must not imagine that by distributing seedlings, chicks or piglets, their job is done. Significant resources must be dedicated to research towards finding cures or adequate preventive measures for the pests and diseases that cause our farmers untold losses.
Our scientists need all the necessary support to lead this effort. In addition, the farming sector regulators should be empowered to decisively deal with the problem of fake or substandard drugs on the market.
It is difficult to encourage people to embrace commercial agriculture as a way to fight poverty and take the Ugandan economy to the next level, when the farmers we know are struggling with losses caused by pests and diseases.