Farmers who dry their produce (any crop) on bare ground will be arrested, Vincent Ssempijja, the Minister of Agriculture has warned. According to the minister, Police, Parish and Sub County Chiefs have been told to be on the lookout.
This is one of the stringent measures set against poor practices of handling crops during and after harvest. The development follows a ban of Maize imports from Uganda by the Republic of Kenya.
Kenya’s Agriculture and Food Authority (AFA) directed a ban on maize imports from Uganda and Tanzania over food safety reasons. The ban was later lifted under strict terms which include; that all importers and exporters shall require registration accompanied with certificates indicating that the level of aflatoxins isn’t exceeding 10%.
According to Ssempijja, the Ministry has found it meaningful to move in with utmost strictness towards securing the quality of all types of food crops produced by the country.
He says the new guidelines will address the laxity of farmers and other persons involved in the food production chain.
Figures of the Uganda Agriculture data brief show that Uganda exports an average of 330,620 tonnes of maize to Kenya.
But Ssempijja says Uganda’s maize quality has also slid back on the regional market standards; from grade one to three, which necessitates putting in place serious interventions to secure the country’s export market for its grain and serial produce.
Uganda’s agricultural produce including coffee have on some occasions been branded dirty. It is said that some farmers dry coffee on the ground where it gets mixed with goats’ poop. This causes it prices to drop at the world market.
