Joseph Miti and Steven Ariong
4 November 2009
With its unreliable and erratic rains, scorching sun, dust mainly offset by storms, dry rivers and ambushes, Karamoja is not a suitable region for crop farming - let alone living in.
Despite having fertile soils, the region has endured food shortage for decades, forcing residents to largely depend on humanitarian food aid. Visiting the homesteads (manyatta), it's rare to find a family that can afford two meals a day. And with this perplexing climate change, experts say the situation is worsening day by day and they predict that in the near future, more people will be at risk of starving to death.
Going by the distress in Karamoja, which comprises six districts, Abim, Kotido, Moroto, Kaabong, Nakapiripirit and the newly created Amudat, one wonders whether the problem is poor planning or lack of it. "Karamoja's problem is water," says Nakapiripirit District Agricultural Officer, Mario Tengei. "For years now, we have been receiving little or erratic rains that can't support crops to maturity," Tengei says.
He explains that since animals are dramatically reducing in the region, people are now showing a desire for farming. They are now farming though in most cases they don't harvest. "With this fertile soil, if we had irrigation systems to supplement unreliable rainfall during dry spells, the region could be a food basket," Tengei says. Just like him, Ms Rose Akidi of Kotido Church of Uganda Mothers Union believes that if the region is supported with irrigation schemes, it can feed several people. "All crops do very well in Karamoja and the community is keen to produce more food, but our efforts are always hampered by droughts," Akidi says.
Pointing at the only green and healthy crops in the area - grown in separate segments that are irrigated regularly at Lomukura Village in Kotido, she said: "We grew these crops to show the government that once irrigation is introduced in the region, anything is possible."
Fruitful initiative
The demonstration garden contained vegetables, tomatoes, onions, cabbage, beans, sunflowers, food crops like cassava, millet, sorghum and citrus. It was tilled by different organisations and women groups purposely to exhibit to guests who gathered to commemorate World Food Day in Kotido recently. The initiative thrilled Ms Hope Mwesigye, the Minister of Agriculture, Animal Industry and Fisheries, Ms Janet Museveni, State Minister for Karamoja, Aggrey Bagiire, Agriculture State Minister and other guests who toured the gardens on World Food Day.
According to Ms Jessica Ataa, chairperson of Nahere Women group - one of the groups that own a plot at the demonstration site, her group fetches water from a catholic diocese, which is two kilometres away, to water their crops including oil seeds (groundnuts, simsim and sunflowers). "At times, we have to buy five 20-litre jerry cans of water at Shs600 each to irrigate this garden. We spent that much to send a message to those responsible to know that we need irrigation schemes to grow our own food," Ms Ataa says, adding that, "If countries in deserts can grow food, why not us?" Although other regions are currently enjoying abundant rainfall and farmers are busy planting, those in Karamoja are still waiting.
In March and April this year, they tried to plant food but all crops failed to germinate due to bad weather. This has been the phenomenon for the last four years. Farmers have planted and replanted but rains have always failed them. According to meteorological reports, Karamoja sub-region received only seven per cent of the rains it would have normally received in a planting season last year.
Basing on this year's World Food Day theme, "Achieving food security in times of crisis", the Food and Agricultural Organisation (Fao) country representative, Percy Misika, says that the government and development partners have a colossal task of forming strategies that can guarantee food security in Karamoja and other stressed regions.
Achieving food security in times of crisis calls for more investment in agriculture, introducing advanced technologies to increase productivity, setting up good infrastructure and investing more in water production since depending on only rainfall is perilous, Mr Misika says. "This means there is need for both political will and total commitment to transform Karamoja," he emphasises.
Bagiire concurs with the community that if water is available, the region can produce enough food. "Adoption of intensive agricultural schemes, water conservation and retention and building of water catchments to trap water run-off can solve water challenges in the region," he says. Unfortunately, World Food Programme (WFP), the major food provider in the region, announced last month that it is ending its routine food distribution next year. This will leave many hungry. Minister Mwesigye however says it is not practical for the government to introduce irrigation schemes in the area before farmers adopt block farming.
Project expensive
Citing 52 districts that are currently faced with food shortage due to prolonged drought, Ms Mwesigye says supporting each individual farmer with irrigation systems is unaffordable and unsustainable. She adds that once the region gets rains, the government will distribute planting materials to farmers and introduce tractor and ox-plough for hire to enhance food production. Meanwhile, Fao, through its emergency coordination and rehabilitation unit (Echo) has set apart Euros900,000 for drought-tolerance varieties of sorghum, maize, millet, cow peas and cassava for 120,000 households.
The unit is also helping the community to develop water harvesting and management systems by way of building sub-surface water dams, an innovation that is ideally set up near manyattas, to stop water from running off. Water can later be tapped for watering livestock, plants and domestic use.
Furthermore, under this programme, the farmers are introduced to the concept of Farmer Field Schools (FFS), under which they are organised in groups of about 30 to help each other out of challenges.
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