By Claude Omona
Farmers in the Acholi sub–region are anticipating poor harvests due to the scorching sunshine that they fear is affecting crops and will likely cause food shortages.
Martin Okello, a farmer in Lamogi-ber village in Amuru district planted eight acres of rice but they are stunted due to a shortage of rain.
“We only received rainfall for a short time and that confused many farmers,” said Okello.
He said that he is forecasting food insecurity in the entire Acholi sub–region since the harvest will not be a bumper one as expected.
Denis Nyeko, another farmer in Guna village, Ongako sub-county in Omoro district, planted two acres of maize for home consumption. He explained that the maize plantation is getting ruined due to too much sunshine.
Ben Ocan, a model farmer under Latanya Farmers’ Group in Gulu district, noted that the weather patterns have since changed and that farmers should look out for climate-resilient crops to plant, should they want to stay afloat in the business.
“I urge farmers to plant cassava which may help them next year because we are likely to have famine next year if the climate keeps changing like this,” said Ocan.
George Williams Omonyi, the weather forecasting manager at Uganda National Meteorological Authority, announced last week that there would be no rains in most parts of Uganda for two weeks starting this week.
Omonyi added that the rain in some parts of the country was on a downward trend and therefore encouraged farmers to use the dry period for weeding their crops.
