MPs want government to make it compulsory for every school to own a farming garden
If you visited some of the rural homes, even urban homes, people are narrowly surviving on things that aren't food, they are eating anything just to live.
Lawmakers on the Uganda Parliamentary Alliance on Food and Nutrition Security have called on the government to make it compulsory for every school to own a farming garden to reduce incidences of hunger and malnutrition amongst learners.
The legislators made the appeal while addressing the media ahead of the commemoration of the World Food Day that was held in Mukono District under the theme; Water is life, Water is food, Leave no one behind on 16th October 2023.
Milton Muwuma (Kigulu South) who doubles as Chairperson of the Alliance called for the compulsory establishment of gardens in schools in a bid to fight the rampant cases of hunger and malnutrition among learners and increased investment in agriculture to increase food production in Uganda.
“We urge the government to make it compulsory for schools to have school gardens to prevent issues of hunger among school going children. We urge Government to enhance its investment in water for production, provision of quality planting materials, increase on regional food stores and silos. National rollout of tractor scheme, revive school farming and review the existing policies on food and nutrition security,” he said.
Flavia Kabahenda (Kyegegwa DWR) called for increased awareness on the high rates of hunger and starvation amongst both rural and urban populations, noting that, “there are very many people in Uganda grappling with hunger, and malnutrition.”
“If you visited some of the rural homes, even urban homes, people are narrowly surviving on things that aren’t food, they are eating anything just to live. We want to use this day to look across the country and see the countless individuals that are grappling with this hunger,”
Kabahenda also called for a review of the Food and Drug Act 1952 to strengthen the monitoring of the quality of food sold and being produced on Ugandan market remarking, “Ugandans are eating foods which are unsecure which has caused many people to get dangerous diseases like cancer and this can only be solved by reviewing the Act.”
She also called for the deployment of nutritionists in all health facilities starting with Health Centre IIIs to address the nutrition shortages that could escalate the ailments the patients could be grappling with.
“We are looking at the Ministry of Health deploying nutritionists at the health centre IIIs people don’t only need medicine, we also need nutrition, women who come for antenatal, people who are on ARVs, TB patients and every other patient they need a nutritionist to tell them how much they need to eat and what kind of food they need to take for the ailments they are suffering with,”said Kabahenda.
Gerald Kato, The Right to Grow, Coordinator in Uganda noted that it is unfortunate that Uganda will be cerebrating this year’s world food day when over 10 million Ugandans go without food and even 26% of children below five years are stunted because they don’t reach their food potential and 64 % of the school going children spend the whole day without food which is a very big challenge that should be tackled by this government.
The development comes at the time in May 2023, the Uganda Human Rights Commission (UHRC) in its 25th Annual Report on the State of Human Rights and Freedoms in Uganda in 2022 revealed that the prolonged dry spell that ravaged Karamoja sub-region claimed lives of 2255 people in the districts of Kotido, Moroto, Kaabong and Napak.
According to UHRC, there were 225 deaths due to starvation in Kaabong district of these, 104 males and 121 females, with elderly above 60years being most affected. The hunger was alarming in Napak district affecting 22,735 person’s and of these, 188 lost their lives, while in Moroto district, 35 people were reported to have died of starvation, while 131 died due to hunger related illnesses.
The UHRC attributed the deaths to adverse impacts on the environment that affected food crop production. According to the World Bank, food insecurity in Uganda remains stubbornly high and during Round 9 of the survey conducted in August 2022, food insecurity measured by moderate and severe food insecurity indexes were at very high levels of 48 and 11 percent respectively.
This is only slightly lower compared to Round 8 (June/July 2022) and Round 7 (October/November 2021). Region-wide, the highest levels of food insecurity were observed in the poorest Eastern and Northern regions.
