By Abdulkarim Ssengendo
Fruit and vegetable farmers in Ntungamo and Rukungiri have been urged to form cooperatives so as to access international markets.
The call was made by Ronald Asiimwe- Agriculture Inspector in charge of Kigezi zone who said this will open regional and international export markets for Uganda fresh fruits and vegetables.
Asiimwe was addressing a group of farmers from Ntungamo and Rukungiri who attended a one-day training session on proper use of agriculture chemicals.
Farmers who attended the training were those who target the export market.
The training took place on Monday in Ntungamo town
According to Asiimwe, recently the country experienced interceptions of fresh fruits and vegetables in European markets attributing this to maximum residual levels of pesticides
The most harmful levels of pesticide exposure result from accidents, some of which are caused by carelessness. Most of these occur during mixing, repacking, decanting, during the opening of pesticide containers and application. Asiimwe warned that persons involved in transporting pesticides risk possible injury if pesticide containers rupture and spill their contents.
He advised the farmers never to put pesticides not packed in its original containers, avoid those that are not sealed, broken cap, expired or without label and not registered for use in the country.
“Recent we saw interceptions as a result of maximum residual levels, most of these products are not sold here, they are sold in Europe and Europe has its market requirements which we must meet as Uganda,” Asiimwe stated.
According to Joseph Mukisa- Support to East African Market Driven and People Centered Integration project coordinator- the training was triggered by several challenges facing the fruit and vegetable sector whereby Ugandan products are getting intercepted at the export market.
He attributed this to farmers and other stakeholders misusing agriculture chemicals
“There are so many cases reported including the overuse of pesticides, by the time that product hits the international market there is a lot of pesticide on it and these are things the international market looks at because these pesticides are dangerous, we called this training to teach them how they can safely apply agro-chemicals so that the products they do and export are safe for human consumption “He added.
Joseph Mukasa from the ministry of agriculture noted that with the increasing cases of cancer there is a need to ensure safe food consumption in the country and beyond and said this will be done by solving the problem locally through building capacity to supply internationally.
Farmers were also concerned about the rejection of their products on the international market and called for immediate government support to help strengthen their cooperatives
Elder Tinkamanyire James a member of Rwenshande Mixed Farmers Cooperative Society located in Nyamunuka believes when all farmers are helped to work together and export together will help them produce quality products. Tinkamanyire noted the absence of togetherness in the farming has increased cases of farmers using pesticides not recommended by European countries and called for government support
Even Mugabo, another farmer, said the pesticides and other tools farmers are using are expensive, the reason why some end up resorting to cheap ones which are fake. These called for government support and other agriculture organizations to provide them grants and long-term loans that would enable them use the recommended pesticides and even go for training to acquire skills on how to apply them.
