7 November 2009
editorial
Kampala — There is an outbreak of potato worms in Teso and Kigezi regions, the country's two leading potato growing areas. The outbreak has serious implications, both on the affected regions and the country as a whole.
The outbreak comes at a time when the two regions are still grappling with the after effects of the natural calamities that recently visited them.
Floods, followed by a prolonged drought, have greatly eroded Teso region's capacity to feed itself, let alone live up to the title of Uganda's sweet potato capital.
Parts of Kigezi region were recently hit by rainstorms, which triggered landslides that killed people and destroyed sweet potato gardens.
If not handled carefully and urgently, the potato worm outbreak might worsen the already precarious food scarcity in the two regions, and in the whole country.
While the agriculture ministry has responded fast by informing the public about the problem and how to handle it, more needs to be done.
Efforts must be made to ensure that the destructive worms do not spread to other parts of the country. This calls for careful screening of planting material, before moving it from one area to another, which is one of the ways pests and diseases spread.
The ministry should put in place a system to monitor, and where necessary restrict, the movement of planting material for crops like potatoes, bananas and cassava, from one part of the country to another as a way of checking the spread of pests and diseases.
Farmers should also be taught how to identify and eradicate these dangerous pests and diseases before they become a serious problem.
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