State Minister for Agriculture Vincent Bamulangaki Ssempijja. Photo Credit: PACIS
State Minister for Agriculture Vincent Bamulangaki Ssempijja says focus should now be put on organizing farmers to be able to produce goods accepted on the international market. This comes after reports that most agricultural produce from Uganda exported to the European market has harmful organisms such as African Cotton leaf worm, false codling moth, and fruit flies among others. This prompted government to impose a self-ban on exportation of agricultural products until standards are met.
Officiating at the 4th National Agricultural Policy Forum in Kampala today, Ssempijja said to improve standards, famers should be sensitized on the standards required, improve hygiene, know what pesticides to use and other practices so as to produce goods that conform to international standard. The forum was a partnership between the Economic Policy Research Centre and the Policy Action for Sustainable Intensification of Ugandan Cropping Systems (PASIC) project. It’s objectives were:
– Critically examine Uganda’s agriculture sector policy framework for policy inconsistencies;
– Identify and map policy implementation gaps and challenges and how these have affected the performance of the sector; and
– Critically examine policy options for stimulating productivity in the sector by looking at the agricultural extension system.