Robert Okuda, the Kotido district Production officer is
predicting a food deficit by March that might plunge the district into a hunger crisis.
This follows the massive sale of farm proceeds
this festive season coupled with the fires that have ravaged harvest in the
district lately.
According to Okuda though farmers registered a bumper
harvest in the 2024 farming season, they were forced to sell part of the
harvest to meet their needs during the festive while the little that most of
them had secured pushed them through till the next harvest was currently being
destroyed by the wild spread fires.
He adds that apart from the fire, some of the households are
using part of the harvests in the production of “ebutia” a local brew to
generate household income.
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Akore John Bosco, the Secretary of Kotido elders council says the predictions are visible with the current
migration of locals to neighbouring districts in search of work to get
food that would sustain their households during the dry season.
Akore says this has been a common practice where the
Karimojong get bumper harvests sell them off cheaply and purchase them
expensively after some months.
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Okuda, says that there is a need for the local
leadership to commence sensitization for the use of the remaining food sparingly
to avert a possible hunger crisis and mapping of families that are badly hit by
hunger so that they are supported to avert death as they wait for the rainy
season.
Okuda also advises parents to be vigilant and use the 16
stores spread across the district to store their remaining food so that they
are not destroyed by the fires.