Uganda could lose up to US$ 218.3million (803.4bn) per annum potential revenue from just four crops if desert locusts that are already spread in 28 districts aren’t handled very well, Vincent Bamulangaki Ssempijja (pictured), the Minister of Agriculture, Animal Industry and Fisheries, has said.
Addressing
journalists at Uganda Media Centre on Tuesday, the Minister gave a summary of export
revenue earned by Uganda from crops vulnerable to the Desert Locust invasion in
2018. These include Fruits and Vegetables- US$ 40.6million, Maize-US$
106.8million, Cotton- US$44.3million and Simsim-US$ 26.6million.
“Collectively this would come to US$ 218.3million (803.4bn) per annum potential
revenue for Uganda that is at risk from just four crops of the 11 crops at
stake if we did nothing (to combat locusts),” Ssempijja said.
He
also informed journalists that a new swarm arrived in Soroti yesterday, and
that the Country is likely to face a bigger invasion a few days from now due to
eggs that have started hatching both from Uganda and Kenya.
Since it is conclusively hard to budget for these insects, the Minister
informed the public that his Ministry has requested for an extra 16 billion
shillings to be prepared for the worst.
