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****** Uganda: Drought Alarms U.S.?Officials ******
Chris Ocowun
4 September 2009
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Kampala — Officials of the US Congress have decried the high rate of crop
failures in northern Uganda due to persistent drought.
They advised the Government and humanitarian agencies to start giving farmers
seeds of drought-resistant crops. The eight officials toured fields in
Labworomor and Omiya-Anyima villages in Kitgum district on Tuesday and
Wednesday.
The team comprised Oliver Stacie and Patrick Sherman, both of the US Senate,
Rachel Carter, Mark Milosch and Antonina King all from the House of
Representatives and Megan Kone from the US embassy, Kampala. Rhodie Margesson
from the US Congressional Research Service was also part of the group.
Led by Molly Gray from the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC)
Washington, they warned farmers against inter-cropping in order to maximise
harvests from their gardens. They noted that some fields had more than five
different crops.
The one-week visit organised by ICRC, was to enable the group appraise
themselves with the humanitarian situation in the north. ICRC has supplied
drought resistant sorghum seeds to 73,000 families that were affected by the
drought.
The organisation is also supporting the farmers to open up agricultural land
through its cash for work programme, where it pays for each family to plough
two acres of land per season.
The ICRC economic security coordinator, Janet Angelei, said the intervention
would boost agricultural productivity.
"These farmers lost over 60% of their crops because of poor rainfall. Most of
them do not have enough food and are experiencing difficulty obtaining seed for
the next season," she said.
The US officials also toured Kitgum Hospital and Bibia Health Centre, both
undergoing renovation by the ICRC.
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