By George Bita
As the first harvest season of the year sets in, farmers in Busoga sub-region are concerned over increased theft of their farm produce.
According to Musa Kasone, a farmer indulging in mixed farming at Budooma village in Luuka district, the thieves are mainly taking advantage of the cover of darkness to raid farms and steal their mature crops.
“Imagine after sweating to plant, weed and facilitate growth somebody comes to reap from where he never sowed. This is very annoying to the farmer,” Kasone lamented.
Sarah Mutesi, a groundnuts farmer at Bulange village in Namutumba district observed that the thieves must be from the neighbourhood and first monitor the farmers’ routine before striking.
“There are those who watch you uproot almost half an acre of groundnuts then they come shortly after you have left the garden to complete what remained. This is really bad,” Mutesi told New Vision on Thursday.
She said the thieves are making farmers end up with losses after investing a lot in farm inputs with expectations of harvesting good money out of the bountiful yields.
“Actually some farmers incur loans to be able to purchase farm inputs. Now if a thief takes the output this may lead to defaulting on loan repayments causing business to collapse,” she argued.
Elijah Kagoda, the Kaliro district chairman urged farmers to invest in security to save their hard-earned harvest from being swindled.
“Thieves are taking produce worth millions. This can be stopped by hiring private guards at a friendly rate to protect the fields,” he advised.
Moses Kyera, a vanilla farmer at Nawandala village in Iganga district disclosed that farmers in his village now spend nights in the fields to keep thieves away.
“We watch over our crop in groups locally referred to as Nkuuma kange (I am keeping watch over my own). The team is ever armed with pangas, huge sticks and spears to scare away any would-be thief,” Kyera emphasised.
He said those caught with farm produce are usually from the area and they are punished by being paraded along the village streets with what they stole.
“If it is chicken, we hang it around your neck as you are taken around the village. The same applies to matooke or vanilla and this serves as a deterrent measure to the rest to avoid becoming thieves,” he said.
Henry Mukubira, the Namugongo LC3 chairman in Kaliro district narrated that some of the arrested thieves are set free after being identified as jobless youths in the community.
“At times the parents turn up begging and out of sympathy the local leaders ask the farmers to demand just compensation. However, this again leaves wrongdoers in our midst,” Mukubira noted.
Diana Nandawula, the Busoga-East Police publicist called upon farmers to report cases of theft to nearby police stations as this tantamount to committing a criminal offence.
“Those apprehended should also be taken to police for subsequent prosecution in courts of law. We shouldn’t shield them because they are our neighbours’ children,” she warned.
