LIRA-Cooperative farmers in the Lango and Acholi sub-regions have urged government to construct storage facilities to enable them to maintain the quality of their harvests.
They said the production has gone up in the sub-regions but there are no storage facilities yet they are supposed to maintain the quality of the agricultural produce in order to compete favourably in the market.
“It is still a big problem and I want to appeal to the government and development partners to reconsider putting up storage facilities, reinforce messages to revitalise cooperatives, “said Angella Ocen Ogwal while speaking to this reporter about the challenges farmers face after harvesting their crops.
Ocen who is the chairperson of Ayee Medo Ngeca Local Seed Growers cooperative in Dokolo district said reviving the cooperatives has become a challenge because of the public`s negative mindset.
According to Ocen, the production of soybean, maize, cassava, and sunflower among others is picking up because of the formation of cooperatives.
“At one time we had a very strong cooperative but it collapsed. Now to reactivate it is a big challenge because it has been off for a long time,” Ocen said.
He said since some of them know the benefits of togetherness in a cooperative, they will never get tired to preach the gospel of cooperatives.
“Even realising enough membership you need to talk and talk thoroughly explaining the benefit of cooperatives,” he added.
Bonney Otim of Ogini Farmers` Cooperative Society Ltd in Alebtong district, said despite the ongoing efforts to reawaken the cooperatives which collapsed decades ago, the region also faces challenges of climate change.
He said there is a need to mitigate the effects of climate change, which affects crops year by introducing small-scale irrigation schemes.
“I want to call upon partners and the government to put in place affirmative action to support farmers, especially those organising themselves into cooperatives so that we can take farming to another level,” he said.
He commended GiZ for supporting the cooperatives in the north by building their capacity, networking, and encouraging people to form cooperatives.
“It has also helped us to expand business linkages. However, as a cooperative, we are facing so many challenges whereby climate change as prolonged drought has affected production,” he added.
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