By Tom Gwebayanga
A wave of famine is looming in four sub-counties in Bukedea district following the outbreak of the Cassava Brown Streak Disease (CBSD), coupled with the prolonged drought which has compromised this season’s harvests.
Mary Akol, the district chairperson, said the disease, which features rotten tubers, was identifi ed in May.
“Our people had invested in preparing land, buying seeds and weeding; however, the weather pattern has been hostile and all crops have withered,” Akol told New Vision during an interaction on Friday.
Akol said cassava is a staple food that doubles as a cash crop, implying that the outbreak will affect both social and economic aspects in the communities.
The worst hit sub-counties include Kabarwa, Malera, Kangole and greater Bukedea, where farmers are worried of facing hunger and abject poverty in the coming months. Featuring subsistence and commercial farmers, the calamity of the CBSD and the prolonged drought send messages of looming hunger and poverty because the crop contributes to better wellbeing and household income.
Residents speak out
Anthony Roberts Obukulem, a progressive farmer and opinion leader in Malera sub-county, said cassava contributes 75% of the food crops produced in Teso sub-region.
Apollo Egiru, an agricultural expert in Serere district, said Bukedea alone produces between 75,000 and 100,000 tonnes of raw tubers per year. The mature tubers are sliced, cooked and eaten; others are dried and processed into flour for domestic and commercial use, implying that the calamities are bad news for Bukedea and Teso region at large.
“We depend on crops to fix financial challenges, including fees for children and medical care,” Stella Omolokonya, 62, a local leader in Mukura parish, Kangole sub-county, said.
The CBSD outbreak adds to the prolonged drought that persisted between late April and mid-June, leading to withered maize, sorghum, and finger millet gardens in Bukedea.
Anthony Roberts Obukulem, a farmer and opinion leader in Kangole sub-county, said the disease compromises harvests by 90%, featuring eight out 10 rotten tubers on each stalk.
“The stems and leaves look healthy, but the tubers underground are rotten and emit a foul smell,” Obukulem, a resident of Akisim, one of the worst hit villages, said.
He added that under normal harvests, 8-13 stalks fill a 100kg bag, but now, you need to harvest a sizable portion to get one bag.
Cassava values
Cassava is consumed in many forms, such as getting daily dishes where the tubers are sliced into halves, cooked and eaten.
It can also be sliced in into small pieces, then mixed and cooked with beans to make katogo, a meal enjoyed in both rural and urban settings.
In other designs, cassava is processed into flour, which is mixed with millet flour to prepare kwon kal (millet meal) or cooked plain to make the popular ochada meal, or pancakes.
In the business aspect, brew makers ferment crushed or processed cassava to produce local brew, such as kwete, bbungu and Liralira.
Cassava flour can also be fermented with millet flour to make malwa (millet brew), the popular drink in Teso sub-region, while manufacturers of textiles and factories use it as starch.
Dr Samuel Namanda, a researcher with the National Agricultural Research Organisation (NARO), notes that cassava contributes 75% of the food produced in Teso region, featuring between 12,000 and 15,000 tonnes of raw tubers from Bukedea alone.
Currently, the harvests are miserable, featuring 90% reduction in raw tubers.
Henry Samuel Otamai, a resident of Akisim village, says the unfriendly weather has also affected growing potatoes, leading to reduced or no potato production between July and September.
With the weather forecaster having announced sunny dry weather between July and August; Julius Apukan, the former Bukedea district councillor, is worried about how communities will survive in the next five months.
In the same way, the dry spell has led to the silting of swamps, where locals would have sought water for irrigation, watering the flocks and grazing them.
Ebukulem appeal Government to intervene through sensitising the masses on how to control the spread of the streak virus, before the situation runs out of control
Fighting hunger
Over the years, cassava has for the decades played a big role in fighting hunger, for example in the 1980 famine, where those who had the crop were regarded as Kings.
John Ndaba, 70, a father of six, narrated how the family survived on Ochada and fresh mushrooms collected from rotten tree stumps and gardens.
Other families survived on mangoes, but still, cassava remained the most efficient hunger-fighting tool.
Expert’s opinion
Dr Samuel Namanda, a researcher and pest expert with the National Agricultural Research Organisation (NARO), confirmed the CBSD outbreak, adding that besides Bukedea, Teso sub-region is also under attack.
“The disease is eminent in the districts of Kumi, Kapelebyong, Soroti, Serere and Amuria,” Namanda said, naming some of the vulnerable varieties as Nigeria and Bwaana Tereka.
The disease
Cassava Brown Streak Disease (CBSD) whitens stems and affects the mature tubers, leading to rotting.
Typical CBSD symptoms are leaf chlorosis, brown streaks on stems and dry hard rot in roots, thus affecting both the quality and quantity of edible storage roots.
Managing the disease
- Planting cuttings from disease-free areas/gardens after being certified by the agriculture ministry
- Planting the latest disease-tolerant varieties, for example NASE 14, 19 and NAROCAS1, NAROCAS 2, (farmers should, from time to time, be vigilant of the symptoms and report to extension offi cers at the sub-county and district levels for guidance)
- Uprooting and burying or burning diseased plants or entire field.
- Integrated disease management.
- Most resistant/tolerant varieties are susceptible to CBSD, but the tolerant varieties currently recommended to farmers include, NASE 14, 19 and NAROCAS1, Narocas 2, Narocas 3.
LEAD PHOTO CAPTION: Farmers showing the magnitude of cassava disease in Kangole sub-county, Bukedea district. Photo by Tom Gwebayanga
