The government is urging livestock farmers, especially in the cattle corridor to embrace interventions aimed at easing the impacts of drought.
The cattle corridor, which includes the southwestern, central region, northeast, and central northern parts of the country, usually suffers extensive adverse effects whenever there are weather changes.
The National Environment Management Authority-NEMA recorded the cattle corridor as the most vulnerable to floods, erratic rains, high temperatures, and prolonged droughts. This usually leads to unstable incomes for the farmers but also affects the supply and prices of dairy products on the market.
The Ministry of Agriculture, Animal Industry, and Fisheries is charged, along with that of Water and Environment, with ensuring the availability of water for agriculture production.
According to the Ministry of Agriculture, they have equipment that is meant for the construction of dams in areas that need them but on demand.
The Dairy Development Authority (DDA) says it is mobilizing farmers in cooperatives to utilize the government equipment especially if they can raise for fueling the excavators for damming.
Samson Akankiza Mpiira, the DDA Director of Technical Services, says the transportation of excavators to the areas is the most difficult part and the government will foot the cost.
He says this is one of the many interventions that they have put in place to counter the effects of drought. Mpiira adds that they want to develop a culture of producing and storing fodder, saying if these are done, the effects of droughts would be greatly mitigated.
The first half of the year 2022 has had erratic rains with the dry season extending into late March, while the rains were shorter than normal only being experienced in April and May.
As the cattle corridor suffered the dry spell, milk output fell from a daily average of 7.5 million liters according to DDA, to less than 5 million, pushing prices upMpiira says when the farmers are affected by the adverse weather effects leading to low output, some resort to adulterating their milk with water to earn more, which in the end affects the quality and safety of the milk.
According to Mpiira, mechanization and more intensive farming practices are also part of efforts to support improvement in the quality of milk on the market, right from the farm.
However, Mpiira urges farmers to take more of their milk to processors other than selling it raw directly from the farm to the consumers, so that safety is enhanced.
Heifer International, a not-for-profit anti-poverty organization is one of those partnering with the government under the Accelerate Dairy Production and Productivity (ADAP) program, supporting Ugandan farmers to improve their productivity through access to funding and equipment.
Speaking at the handover of 500 milk cans to farmers in the central area of the cattle corridor, John Senyonga, the Programs Manager at Heifer Uganda said good farming practices required for high-quality production amidst climate changes are too expensive for most farmers.
He says they have decided to establish a revolving fund to enable farmers to acquire farm equipment like fodder machines and milk cans.
A can for example costs 330,000 shillings, which according to him is hard for a small-scale farmer to acquire unless it is paid for in installments.
Heifer’s plan is to support 400,000 families by 2025 in different agricultural production segments.
Senyonga also advised the government and others involved in supporting farmers to put into consideration the disruptions that were caused by the Covid-19 pandemic.
“It is important to note that, during the last two years, COVID-19 market interruptions have diminished demand, increased spoilage, increased local market selling, and raised prices for inputs. These challenges are in addition to inaccessible extension and advisory services, non-tariff barriers for dairy exports, among others,” he said.
Uganda exports just over 1 billion litres of milk a year in different products like yoghurt, creams, cheese, butter, and milk powder.
However, the East African market has usually suffered setbacks with the governments blocking the milk now and then citing standard issues.
Mpiira says a major solution to this would be increased local consumption of milk because, at 60 litres per person per year on average, consumption is too low compared to the recommended and world average of 200 litres.
He said that per capita consumption was attained, and even the local market would not be satisfied.
In 2021/22 Uganda is estimated to have produced more than 3 billion liters a year up from 2.8 billion liters the previous year.
