The Monitor (Kampala)
John K. Abimanyi
4 November 2009
Two weeks ago, the news pages relayed an unprecedentedly unusual piece of good news from Karamoja. It was news of a report from the National Livestock Census report that cited Karamoja region as having the highest numbers of livestock, (cattle, goats and camels) in the whole of Uganda.
For a region that mostly gets coverage on such topics as drought, famine, poverty, death and cattle rustling, this was a breath of fresh air. But more so, the report, that cites Kaabong and Moroto as the districts with the highest number of cattle in Uganda, offers the opportunity to not only ask why the region has failed to use its large symbol of wealth to rid itself of poverty, but also, what can be done to avert the trend.
Perceptions need to change
Hon Sammy Ogwel Loote, the Member of Parliament for Moroto Municipality and Mr Michael Lokiru, the district's agricultural officer, say a combination of factors, both natural and man-made, are responsible for making the Karimojong poor and yet they are sitting on a virtual gold-mine. Mr Lokiru decries their anti-development views. "The people's perception of wealth is in numbers and not milk or quality of the beef," he says. "The monetary economy is a new thing, especially for the rural people who are keeping the cattle in the villages," he adds. That, he explains, is the reason as to why cattle production has hardly taken off in the area because most people are concerned with the size of the herd of cattle they are keeping and not necessarily improving their quality.
Mr Lokiru adds that it's these same perceptions that have stopped the residents from becoming commercial, which keeps them trapped in poverty. "The trend also is that there is a rigidity to sell by the people who own cattle," he says. Even if they sell, he adds, they only do so for consumption and they don't channel it into money making ventures, which denies them a chance to use the money they have to make more money. It seems to be a chain of problems with one feeding directly into another. Mr Lokiru says that most of the residents only sell to get money for consumption because there are no opportunities for investing in other fields. Most of the businesses people only sell sugar and rice, thus limiting their scope of investment.
Insecurity role
Hon Loote notes that insecurity caused by the Karimojong themselves, has also hampered the development of the livestock industry. This includes the infamous cattle-rustling that sees communities losing large numbers of cattle to invading communities.
Mr Lokiru says that because of this insecurity, many people have sold off all their cattle, consuming all the proceeds, and staying with nothing afterwards. As if that is not enough, nature's forces have blown their presence into the fray. "There is a problem of drought. There is no grass, no water, and so people have to keep moving up and down in search of pasture and water," says Hon Loote. He adds that not even the valley dams that were constructed are helping.
The dams were poorly constructed and when the rains come, the water sweeps the blockages away, he explains. Most of the cattle therefore, (that are mostly local Zebu cattle), cannot get enough pasture and water to enable them produce lots of milk or increase in size and bolster beef production. Mr Lokiru says for most of the cows, milk production is on the level of one litre per cow per day.
Such scenarios pit Karamoja against a high tide of problems, making it difficult to get solutions and enable the region's people to turn their fortunes around. Hon Loote says the situation is close to dire. "There's scarcity of grass and water and the situation is not improving, and there are also issues of insecurity," he says.
What can be done
According to Mr Lokiru, the solution lies in attitude transformation - from subsistence to a more business-oriented type of farming, so that they can earn some money that they can invest elsewhere, in projects like real estate. He however points out that the biggest problem has been cattle rustling. If this is stopped, he says, people will settle down and turn this resource into financial success.
With the prices of beef, milk and its by-products skyrocketing in the past months due to prolonged seasons of drought, it shows just how much money is out there to be made out of cattle keeping. The price of a litre of milk peaked at Shs2,800 while that of a kilo of beef ranged between Shs5,000 and above. Hon Loote says the move is now to lead the people of Karamoja to areas where market of the products is on the rise, like Mbale and Jinja. Areas like western Uganda have managed to turn cattle into financial success. But as noted above, the people of Karamoja will have both nature and themselves to fight if they are to achieve a similar feat.
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