The Ministry with support from the World Bank through the Uganda Intergovernmental Fiscal Transfer Program (UgIFT) disbursed over 1.7 Billion Shillings to Luwero district and 1.03 billion Shillings to Nakaseke under the Micro-scale Irrigation Program.
The project areas have been divided into zones with the six districts in disease control zone one (DCZ1) namely Nakaseke, Nakasongola, Luwero, Kiryandongo, Masindi, and Gomba while eight districts constituting disease control zone two (DCZ2) are Lyantonde, Mbarara, Sembabule, Kiruhura, Kyankwanzi, Rakai, Kyotera, and Isingiro.
Early this year, the Ministry of Agriculture, Animal Husbandry, and Fisheries dispatched a total of 20,000 doses of vaccines to the Nakaseke district to enable pastoralists to vaccinate their heads of cattle against Foot and Mouth Disease.
Dr. James Ukwir, Nwoya District Production officer and also District Veterinary officer says rainwater helped to wash away eggs and the larvae, while Bernard Maktunu, an Agricultural Officer in Got Apowyo Sub-county told URN that birds from Murchison Falls National Park have also played a great role in clearing the armyworms by eating them up.
Denes Sekabira, the Katikamu North Member of Parliament, says recently the Prime Minister recently told Parliament that the government had bought 23,000liters of pesticides and distributed them to districts to fight the African armyworm outbreak.
Fredson Kakooza Wilson, the LC 3 Chairperson of Nabiswera sub-county, says that he personally lost all pasture on his 50 acres of land whereas his neighbour lost pastures on 200 acres of land. Kakooza says that pastoralists can’t afford pesticides to spray the worms, which have spread across large farms in the sub-county.
Mathew Bakabulindi, a farmer at Kanyogogga village in Luwero sub-county, says that he expressed interest and was assessed before he was asked to contribute Shillings 5 million out of the total value of the Shillings 23 million for the solar irrigation equipment.
For a decade now ticks have caused losses to farmers who also have accused the National Drug Authority of failure to provide a solution for their animals that have continued to die because of tick resistance against alleged fake acaricides.
Dr Joseph Amanya, the Sheema District Veterinary Officer says that more than 60 pigs in Kitagata sub-county have signs of African swine fever while others had died.
Steven Bugiri Kashaka, a farmer in Kanyaryeru Sub County says that almost all the dams that have been constructed in the area have dried up due to the heavy drought. According to him, communal dams dried up first after being overwhelmed by the animals because farmers could not afford the cost of excavators and bulldozer machines to dig their own dams.
An outbreak of the disease which affects cattle, swine, sheep, goats and other cloven-hoofed ruminants, was reported in southwestern Uganda at the end of last year. As a result, the government imposed a quarantine on the districts of Gomba, Isingiro, Kazo, Kiruhura and Sembabule where the disease had been detected in many herds.
Led by Maj. Gen. Sam Kavuma, the Deputy Commander of Land Forces the soldiers donned protective gears on their faces as they combed Komoret village where the desert locusts settled in the wee hours of Thursday morning.
Many believed that the type of green bubble-coloured, short-horned grasshopper which was cited in different plantations in Lwega parish was a swarm of highly destructive wild locusts, which were in the recent past cited in Kenya.
During the meeting, Rwamirama instructed the total enforcement of the quarantine for two weeks to allow for a comprehensive vaccination exercise against the FMD in the area, after which an assessment would be conducted for possible opening of all livestock markets.
A kilogram of small-sized fish maw costs 160,000 Shillings on the local market while a kilogram of medium-sized maws costs between 350,000 and 800,000 Shillings. A large maw that can make more than a Kilogram costs up to 1,100,000. The maw costs between USD 450 (1.6 million Shillings) to 1,000 (3.6 million Shillings) on the international market.
The farmers are spraying their animals with high concentrations of chemical mixtures that include pests and insecticides, acaricides and other weed-killers to invent own toxic concoctions that can suppress the ticks.
Rwamirama instructed for a total quarantine restriction for livestock and all related products for a period running for 14 days, to allow for a comprehensive vaccination exercise against Foot and Mouth Disease-FMD virus, after which an assessment will be conducted for possible opening of all markets.
