Aupi Community Cooperative Fails To Cultivate Land

YUMBE – Aupi Community Cooperative farmers struggled for three years to find money to buy 200 acres of farmland.

Now, they can’t cultivate the huge acreage in the West Nile district of Yumbe.

They need tractors to open up the farmland but can’t find any to hire.

According to managers of Aupi Community Savings and Credit Cooperative Society, demand for agricultural products soared in Yumbe District spurred by the huge influx of refugees in need of food.

Farmers couldn’t match the demand for food since they didn’t have tractors to open up huge acreage of arable land.

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The Board Chairman of the cooperative Tohaabubakar Ijoga said, “Aupi cooperative has committed members who are ready to practice commercial agriculture but due to inaccessibility of tractor hire services by the group, members have resorted to small scale agriculture for domestic use.”

He said the cooperative has only Shs 65 million, which is too little to buy a tractor.

Meanwhile, Leonard Okello, the chief executive officer of Uhuru Institute for Social Development, advised the management of Aupi Cooperative to apply for tractors through government programmes such as Operational Wealth Creation (OWC).

“Use the available government programmes to bail you out from poverty, e.g. parish model and OWC, which target to eradicate poverty among organized and focused members in the community,” Okello said.

Amana Small, a member of the cooperative, said the members’ reluctance to repay loans has held back the cooperative’s progress and capacity to own tractors.

She said if the cooperative owned a tractor; it would be easier for group members to hire it at a low cost compared to tractors hired from private individuals.

She said hiring a tractor costs Shs120, 000 per acre and it’s hard to place an order because everyone wants to hire that one tractor.

“Uhuru please help us with a tractor such that we practice commercial agriculture for economic transformation,” Amana said.

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Traditional Herbalists In Tree Restoration Drive

GULU – Traditional herbalists in Acholi sub-region allied to Wise Women Uganda are replanting indigenous herbal trees, which are facing extinction.

Some of the endangered tree species include; Afzelia Africana, commonly known as Beyo and shea-nut, found only in Acholi and some parts of West Nile.

The trees are being felled indiscriminately by timber and charcoal dealers.

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However, about 40 women, mainly traditional herbalists and birth attendants, said that in the past they could easily get indigenous medicinal trees and shrubs to treat patients but to date they can hardly find any.

Juliet Adoch, the director Wise Women Uganda, told theCooperator that they bought seven acres of land in 2016 to plant medicinal trees and shrubs.

“In our umbrella organization, we have traditional healers and traditional birth attendants and we all use medicinal trees to heal several ailments among the population, but since most of the indigenous tree species could not be found, we have embarked on restoration,” she said

She said they have several seedlings of Beyo, Shea-nut trees.

The women have also distributed seeds to farmers in the region and sensitized them on the medicinal benefits of indigenous trees.

Grace Acayo, a traditional healer, said they have struggled to get seeds of both Afzelia Africana and Shea-nut.

“A lot has been injected in this restoration initiative but all was aimed at seeing that indigenous trees are grown once again,” she said.

The tree replanting initiative has also been taken to schools so that the young generation can also embrace it as a means of fighting natural calamities that might result from environmental degradation.

The District Forest Officer James Ocaka lauded the initiative and urged the entire population to borrow a leaf from the women.

“Reforestation should be our responsibility and since women have taken the lead, there is a lot to learn from them,” he advised.

He however, decried the indiscriminative cutting of trees in the region.

In 2018, the Ministry of Water and Environment, suspended the cutting, transportation, and sale of Afzelia Africana and shea nut trees, and their products.

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Build Factories, Farmers Tell OWC

AMURU – The pitiable retail prices of crops grown out of seeds supplied by Operation Wealth Creation (OWC) has remained a subject of vast disagreement between the beneficiary farmers and the program officials in the northern district of Amuru.

Farmers are demanding that OWC builds factories and industries in Amuru District to help farmers add value to their produce.

Interviewed by theCooperator, farmers said OWC has given them planting materials of citrus, cassava and potatoes, but when the crops are harvested they fetch far too little on the market.

Jalia Kalenga Amuge, a citrus farmer, said OWC should help farmers add value to their produce.

“Well, we appreciate the program since right now food production is on the rise but it has not helped us much in areas of surplus for sell. We sell whatever we produce in its raw form, which is costing the farmers a lot,” she said.

Juma Olum said cassava prices are demoralizing. “The only factory in the region cannot consume what we produce. That leaves farmers with no choice but to sell at a giveaway price to the middlemen,” he said.

Simon Peter Komakech, the Amuru OWC District Agricultural Officer, told theCooperator that failure to add value to produce remains a big challenge for farmers across the district.

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Some farmers are demoralized and have restricted themselves to growing only food for domestic consumption.

“You imagine a sack of fresh cassava being sold at only Shs 20,000 and that can go down to Shs 15,000,”’ he said

Komakech said value addition is the way to go much as many farmers cannot afford it.

“At times we imagine that even if farmers are empowered to add value to what they produce, where will they find the market for their produce?” he said.

OWC Spokesperson Kiconco Tabaro advised farmers to use the available factories within their areas to add value to produce.

“They shouldn’t lose hope, but they should team up and find a solution to the problem. The government is soon unveiling a plan to have factories in areas where production is high so that value is added on to what farmers produce,” he advised.

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