Lira farmers decry presence of fake agro-inputs on market

LIRA – Farmers in both Lira district and Lira city have urged the Ministry of Agriculture, Animal Industry and Fisheries [MAAIF] to intervene and remove counterfeit agro-inputs from the market.

The call was made days ago during a dialogue organised by National Alliance for Agricultural Cooperatives in Uganda [NAAC] and Lira District Forum Advocacy Platform where strategies to eliminate fake agro-inputs in Lira markets were discussed.

Lira City which serves the nine districts that make up Lango Sub-region, such as Dokolo, Alebtong, Amolatar, Kole, Kwania, Oyam, and Lira among others, is the main distributor of agro-inputs such as seeds in that region.

According to Denis Osborne Ocaya, the Lira City horticulture officer, counterfeit maize seeds are being sold on a large scale by the local agro-input dealers.

“At the moment, the rate of fake maize seeds in the market especially DK777 is at 80 percent and a packet of two kilogrammes is being sold at between Shs 30,000 -35,000. The original DK777 makes  20 percent, with the same packet of two kilogrammes being sold between 40,000 and 45,000 because of high demand,” Ocaya said.

Speaking during the dialogue held at Lira district headquarters, Richard Cox Max Okello Orik, the LCV chairperson, urged MAAIF to fight counterfeit agro-inputs in the entire country, saying they are responsible for the low agricultural production.

He added: “Counterfeits are killing agricultural production. We have ever arrested people whom we found packing ordinary maize seeds for sale into sacks they had labeled themselves.”

Moris Adem, the speaker Lira district who is also a committee member of Lira District Advocacy Platform said they lack an enforcement team to fight counterfeits that are making farmers to incur losses.

“We should have a special team assigned to perform particular tasks. If we are to have a taskforce like National Drug Authority [NDA], we would not be having counterfeit agro-inputs in Lira. Let us do inspections and do impounding,” said Adem.

Denis Ogwok, the secretary of Awiodyek Oil Seed Farmers’ Cooperative Society Limited said counterfeit agro inputs are increasing on the increase in Northern Uganda.

Ogwok, however, said the technical teams at the district should be given a mandate to carry out enforcement, inspection, and monitoring, if counterfeit agro-inputs on the market are to be dealt with

He added: Even if these agro-inputs have been impounded, and the licence cancelled, the company just continues selling the fake products to the farmers. I do not understand what is happening between the Ministry of Agriculture and the input dealers.”

Ambrose Asingizibwe, the chief executive officer NAAC, said they will intensify sensitisation of farmers in Lira on how they can identify counterfeits.

Asingizibwe added that they would engage MAAIF on how district technical staff can be helped carry out inspection of agro-input shops.

“As NAAC, we have an understanding with MAAIF. We are going to intensify our relationship and focus on counterfeits because these roles of monitoring and inspection is still done by the central government, thus s MAAIF. However, this should be decentralised to the district local governments because districts have the mandate to issue letters of inspection to technical teams,” he said.

https://thecooperator.news/naac-partners-with-lira-city-to-fight-fake-agro-inputs/

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