Interview: Uganda mulls construction of silos in face of insecurity

Uganda is considering the construction of silos as insurance in case the country is hit by food insecurity, a senior government official has said.

Sam Semanda, Commissioner for Planning at the ministry of agriculture told Xinhua in an interview on Wednesday that while Uganda is generally food secure compared to other countries in the region, it can be the worst hit in case of food insecurity.

Semanda said while Uganda exports its food to South Sudan, Kenya, Democratic Republic of Congo and some countries in southern Africa, the country does not have silos where food can be reserved and can run the country for some several months in case of a crisis.

"It is good to produce and export. We export to Tanzania, Malawi, Zambia, Zimbabwe even as far as Mozambique but the question is if there was a real food crisis here, what would happen?" said Semanda.

"We are trying to develop a strategy where we want to reserve at least two million tonnes of maize in the country and we put silos in different parts of the country," he said.

While the initial investment may be high for government because of the competing interests like provision of social services, the private sector would be interested to join the venture, according to Semanda.

He argued that if only 10 percent of what is reserved is exported and later replenished, the country would have enough food to run for about five months as it looks for food from elsewhere.

Uganda has had a similar food storage system before especially in the 1980s but due to external pressures, it was abolished in favor of giving people cash to purchase food.

Semanda argues that while donor pressures cannot be ignored, there are national interests which supersede external interests.

He said through incremental budgetary allocations, the storage system can be developed resulting in multiple advantages.

A report issued on Wednesday showed that although Uganda is food secure, there are parts within the country especially in the semi-arid north eastern part that are insecure.

Figures in the report --Chronic Food Insecurity Situation Overview in Uganda 2015, show that 30 percent of Uganda's total population of 34 million people face some levels of chronic food insecurity.

Experts argue that while some parts of the country produce excess food, others do not and the transport network cannot enable the quick movement of food from areas of plenty to those that are insufficient.

Semanda argues that the silos system can still be used where by food is stored and later transported to parts of the country that are food insecure.

Experts argue that apart from the national level, at household levels farmers should be encouraged to have granaries. Endit