Patrick Alip, the Lira District Agricultural Officer said his office has received a number of complaints from farmers who said the maize seeds they were buying are not yielding.
More than five
tons of counterfeit seeds have been impounded in Lira City in an operation.
During the operation on Agro- input dealers on Thursday, the seeds were impounded
from different Agro- input businesses.
Most of the fake seeds were maize, which is one of the most common food and
cash crop grown in Northern Uganda and most varieties come from Kenya and
Zimbabwe.
Patrick Alip, the Lira District Agricultural Officer said his office has
received a number of complaints from farmers who said the maize seeds they were
buying are not yielding.
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just one day.”//
He said that most unsuspecting farmers are increasingly falling prey to
counterfeit seed makers.
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to make profits.”//
Dorcus Alum, the Principal Agricultural Officer of Lira District cautioned the
traders against supplying fake inputs.
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don’t even open.”//
However, the Agro- input dealers say some of them are intentionally selling
counterfeit seeds and chemicals for the greed of money.
Voxpop on
counterfeit;
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Alex Sunday Elume, the Manager of Brown Way and Family Agro- input blames the
supplier agents for hiking the price of the products, which forces the dealers
to either overcharge the farmers or sell counterfeit products.
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my farmer away.”//
But Walter
Okol, CEO of Agrisol Africa LTD who is also the Secretary-General for the Agro-
input dealers in Lango subregion blamed the government for allowing an influx of
counterfeit products in the market because they have failed in regulation.
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be more authentic.”//
To protect their market, the input dealers
convened a meeting and agreed to name and shame all shops selling counterfeit
products.
