Donald Kiirya
13 November 2009
Kampala — LARGE scale maize farmers in Busoga region have urged the Government to build storage and collection centres, install cleaning and drying facilities to enable them to produce maize that meet international standards.
The chairman of Rock Trust contractor's farmers group, Francis Ssembatya, made the request during a meeting with 17 legislators on the parliamentary committee on Trade and Industry at Agro Ways warehouse in Jinja on Tuesday.
The committee led by the MP for Bugaya Constituency in Hoima district, Rwebembera Kiiza, is on a tour of warehouses countrywide to assess their benefits to farmers and to assist farmers to increase maize production.
"The Government should establish these collection centres to be handled by farmers so that the staff of Agro Ways picks the maize from those collection centres when it is clean instead of farmers taking it direct to the warehouse when it is dirty," Ssembatya said.
Farmers also decried the influx of maize buyers from Juba who go into villages with trailers and buy the maize cheaply. He added that others buy maize plants, while still in gardens and take control of the gardens until they can harvest the maize which they take to Juba.
The MP for Mawokota South, John Bosco Lubyayi, promised to push government to set aside funds to build the stores and collection centres in villages.
He said they moved a motion in Parliament for farmers to process their own maize and export it as flour.
Lubyayi urged farmers to make use of the National Agriuclture Advisory Services to train them in post-harvest handling to avoid losses.
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