By Patrick Okino
The government should set up seed banks in every village in the country to facilitate access to quality declared seed and foster production, the Omoro District LC5 chairperson, Okello Douglas Peter Okao, has said.
Closing a farmer-managed seed systems caravan and policy discourse organised by Oxfam at Bomah Hotel in Gulu City on Friday, September 29, Okao said seeds are an engine of production and the country cannot move forward when there are no quality seeds.
“Is it possible to talk about production without seed? It is not possible that is why I said quality seed is life and health,” he said.
There are 60,800 villages and 10,594 parishes in the country according to the Ministry of Local Government.
Oxfam and partner, Participatory Ecological Land Use Management (PELUM) Uganda and other partners conducted a five-day caravan and policy discourse in Lango, Teso, West Nile and Acholi regions.
Farmer-managed seed systems (FMSS) arrangement is the Oxfam initiative to ensure food security and improved nutrition among the farming community.
It is of diverse activities to maintain, enhance, use, and share genetic materials outside the formal breeding and commercial production system.
Okao said many people are aware that the backbone of our economy is agriculture but wondered how we make agriculture the backbone of the economy when we don’t have quality seeds.
“And here we are talking about quality indigenous seeds and want to see how best we can revamp and all these are geared towards economic empowerment,” he added.
He noted that access to quality declared seeds is still a challenge in the country and there is a need to work together to make it accessible to farmers.
“We can talk about access but there are information and communication gaps. How do we bridge this gap to ensure the quality seed is accessible,” he said.
Okao also said he is in support of the institutionalisation of the farmer field schools because it makes access to quality seed nearer to farmers.
He said apart from the farmer field school, he has noted that there is also a component called seed reliability specifically to deal with unreliable seeds.
Okao added that as he supports the institutionalisation of the farmer field schools, he is an advocate for the establishment of a seed bank like it is in Omoro and other districts.
Seed production challenges
Molly Ajok, a facilitator of Omoro Farmer Field School, said lack of water for production where they depend on rain-fed agriculture, access to adequate land for farmer field schools and documentation, are among the challenges facing farmers.
She suggested that the government should support farmer field schools under seed production to register as local seed businesses so that they can supply farmers and support them to certify the seed as quality declared seed among others.
Francis Olum, the chairperson of one of the farmer field schools in Apac District, said most of the farmer field schools are producing the seeds but are not certified.
“Legally by the seed policy we cannot supply because we have to work with the Ministry of Agriculture and also strengthen partnerships with local governments,” he said.
Paul Osia, the national semi-arid resources research institute, the institute charged with the mission to generate, package and disseminate appropriate agricultural production technologies, advised the farmer field schools and the district local government whenever they needed demonstration seeds contact the institute.
PHOTO CAPTION: Okao making a brief inspection of local food plants and seed displayed at Bomah Hotel in Gulu City on Friday. Photo by Patrick Okino
