Fortunate Ahimbisibwe
12 July 2009
Kampala — THE United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) has bought food worth over $26m (about sh54b) in Uganda in the last six months.
In a recent statement, the country director, Stanlake Samkange, said the organisation had bought 60,850 metric tonnes of food from local traders and small-holder farmer groups.
Most of the food was distributed in Uganda and the remainder went to neighbouring countries.
"Since January, WFP has bought maize grain and maize meal worth nearly $19m, beans worth over $3.5m and enriched blended food for children valued at more than $3.8m," Samkange said.
WFP is the largest buyer of food in Uganda. In 2006 and 2007, Uganda was WFP's leading supplier of food.
"Buying food locally boosts Uganda's economy. In addition, WFP is able to reach needy people faster while avoiding costs of shipping in food from abroad. The agency can, therefore, better use donor funds in situations of severe hunger such as Karamoja, where WFP is conducting a large relief operation," Samkange said.
"Within three years, WFP wants to purchase more than $100m worth of food annually in Uganda for its local and regional operations, doubling what we are buying currently," Samkange said.
Last year, WFP begun buying food through a warehouse receipt system in a bid to increase direct assistance to small-scale farmers and support to the Government's poverty eradication efforts.
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