CLIMATE CHANGE THREATENS FOOD SECURITY IN WEST NILE

By Joseph Abiria

Arua

Cases of food insecurity continue to hit hard in some house holds across West Nile region . 45% of house holds in West Nile face  food insecurity  meaning that they are vulnerable to hunger.

Unlike in the past where West Nile used to be  a food basket for other regions,  food production has greatly  reduced over the years. A lot is still desired to revive food production. Refugee influx, poverty and land fragmentation are the leading causes of food insecurity in the region.

A lot of interventions are required to meet  demands for food production, Clement Ejua, The Programme Leader Technology Promotion and Out Reach at Abizardi challenged farmers to venture in to full scale commercial agricultural production inoder to streamline the value chains. “We need to look from the production cycle, the farmers we have in the region mostly produce insufficient quantities, only to feed house holds leaving the greater budden of production to few individuals who are at commercial level, but what we can do is first to allow the value chains of food production system to be strengthened for example organizing the farmers into producer groups,” he explained.

Similarly Nelson Adile, the Acting District  Agriculture Officer Of Arua  noted that the erratic weather patterns in the region  has severely affected food production. He instead  encourages farmers to grow crops that can with stand droughts. “West Nile used to be a food basket especially in the areas of Vurra and Logiri, however with time things have changed, the climate change we are talking about is very real,the rains we used to receive are no more, you receive rains at the time you don’t expect, you have long extended drought periods, meaning that this still affects the production,” he was responding to rampant droughts due to climate change.

Extensive research in agriculture  is still required to mitigate effects of climate change and there is also need to  introduce new variety of crops that can with stand all forms of weather

COVER PHOTO: Nelson Adile, Acting District Agriculture Officer, Arua By Joseph Abiria