Fortunate Ahimbisibwe and Patrick Jaramogi
30 September 2005
Kampala — PRESIDENT Yoweri Museveni has supported the provision of milk in schools, saying it is a good health boost to the children and to the economy.
"We shall support the provision of milk to our school children because we will be killing two birds with one stone. Milk is good for the health of our children and once we start providing it to children, we shall create a market for our milk thereby boosting our economy as well," he said yesterday.
Museveni was addressing over 100 delegates attending the first eastern and southern Africa regional school milk conference at Hotel Africana, Kampala.
The theme of the three-day conference is 'Milk in Schools: Realising nutritional and Economic Benefits.'
It has attracted representatives from China, Kenya, Tanzania, Sudan, Ethiopia, Malawi, Zambia, Madagascar, South Africa, Israel, Nepal, Australia, the UK, Sweden, Philippine and Uganda.
Museveni urged european countries to remove subsidies on agricultural and dairy products.
"If they remove subsidies, we shall invade their market because we have the capacity of exporting milk to the world market," he said.
He said Uganda is producing about 1.2 billion litres of milk per annum with a total of 6.8 million head of cattle. He said this production would increase with the availability of market.
"We have enough milk to give to all our children in schools and in fact if the programme works out as expected, we shall need to produce more milk," Museveni said.
He said milk fluctuation was experienced in the past due to epidemics such as Rinderpest, which has been eradicated due to massive vaccination.
"The current livestock of 6.8 million will rise to between 10-12 million if this project kicks off. The cattle in the north reduced due to terrorism and cattle rustling," he said.
Museveni warned against importation of milk products, saying Uganda had enough milk products.
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