By Ritah Mukasa
For years, expert agriculturalists, environments and other stakeholders have cautioned farmers against using harmful chemicals but their pleas seem to be falling on deaf ears because the market is still flooded with dangerous pesticides.
Worse still, many farmers don’t seem to care about the negative effects of the chemicals on humans, animals and the environment. They mind about maximizing profits something that Prof. Patrick Kyamanywa finds disturbing.
Prof. Kyamanywa is the Vice Chancellor of Uganda Martyrs University (UMU) Nkozi in Mpigi district.
Being a surgeon, he says, he sees many cancer cases some of which arise from eating foods that have been sprayed with harmful chemicals.
“Many farmers, especially those in commercial farming have lost love for nature. They are obsessed with maximizing profits reason they use harmful pesticides and fertilizers,” he says.
“Such people are committing suicide and killing us as well,” he adds.
Kyamanywa warns that the effect of these chemicals might be seen after 15 years, when the cancer cells grow and manifest.
Also, when the chemicals get into the water, they affect the fish and when we eat it, we suffer the consequences.
In the same way, Prof. John Chrysostom Maviiri, the former VC of UMU is irked by the level of environmental degradation that has seen swamps, wells and forests destroyed.
“Many children in urban settings today don’t know what a well or forest looks like because they have been destroyed,” he says.
Add to that the change in seasons, floods and desertification effects.
“We should step up and conserve the environment. We also need a seed bank for indigenous trees and endangered crops,” he adds.
It’s also against that background that Kyamanywa implores farmers to embrace agro-ecology techniques that increase yields while reducing environmental impacts. These include the use of organic manure and fertilizers rather than chemicals.
For example, through the African Centre for Agro ecology and Livelihood Systems (ACALISE) project that UMU runs courtesy of the World Bank and the Government of Uganda, the university works with various communities to boost their yields while conserving the environment.
One such is the Nindye farmer’s community group that has adopted good agricultural practices. Geofrey Ssemanda their chairperson says, they use organic manure from their farms and make own pesticides as well.
These are accessible, safe and affordable. Ever since they embraced these techniques, their yields have gone up. They have also trained their children.
