Gulu farmers get low crop yields as soils lose fertility

GULU-Farmers in Gulu district are incurring losses brought about the low crop yields emanating from the soils that have lost fertility.

The farmers this reporter talked to days ago attributed the loss of soil fertility to the massive cutting of trees for charcoal, timber, and settlement.

While speaking to this reporter, Ouma Moses, a member of Paicho Area Cooperative in Paicho Sub-county said Kal Umu and Labany parishes where most of the cooperative’s 125 members live, are experiencing reduced crop yields as the soils have lost nutrients.

For instance, Ouma said, soybean farmers currently harvest about 600 kilogrammes [kgs] from an acre of land instead of the 1, 200kgs that they would be harvested if the soils were fertile enough. Other crops grown in the district are, sunflower, groundnuts, beans, maize, millet, cassava, vegetables and many others.

He further explained that Kal Umu and Labany parishes hosted Internally Displaced Persons [IDP] camps during the Lord’s Resistance Army [LRA] insurgency and that some of the displaced people used the land carelessly, making it lose some of its fertility.

He said: “People who came from the villages which were far away to settle in the IDP camps were using the nearby land to farm. This caused the soil to lose its fertility since it [soil] was mismanaged.”

Ouma added, “The land has become exhausted to the extent that the soil fertility has reduced. People have been sensitised and trained on how to use fertiliser and humus where possible.”

He said massive tree cutting in the district  has left the soils bare that its nutrients cannot be protected from the runoff.

He added; “Ten years ago, our area had a lot of trees but right now people have cut down most of the trees. The land has been left bare yet scientists say that trees contribute to soil fertility as their dropped leaves decompose.”

Meanwhile, in neighbouring Omoro district, Robert Wagwanga, a member of Bobi United Grain Producers Cooperative, said members are fighting soil exhaustion through crop rotation. Agriculturalists define crop rotation as the practice of planting different crops sequentially on the same plot of land to improve soil health, optimise nutrients in the soil, and combat pest and weed pressure.

Wagwanga however fears that soil fertility will soon become a serious problem for farmers in Omoro district since many are cutting down trees as they embrace agricultural mechanisation.

Recently, Gulu district production department noted that soil fertility in the district is declining rapidly  due to the indiscriminate cutting of trees and overcultivation.

Jackson Lakor, the Gulu district production officer said most farmers started experiencing a decline in soil fertility five years ago.

“There is a lot of runoff water which carries away the top soil which has the nutrients needed for crops to grow healthy,” Lakor added.

He advised farmers in the district to adopt the use of fertilisers and organic manure if they are to boost soil fertility and get more crop yields in the years ahead.

Recently, the Ministry of Agriculture, Animal Industries and Fisheries [MAAIF] delivered 50 tons of fertilisers to districts in Acholi Sub-region to be distributed to farmers to help improve crop yields.

The Uganda Fertiliser Policy, the loss of soil nutrients in Uganda remains one of the highest on the African continent while the Annual Agriculture Survey [AAS] 2018 results indicate that only 24 percent of the agricultural households used fertilisers, with the rest saying it expensive.

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