The Uganda Government has
announced plans to register all farmers and give their cows birth certificates
for traceability of their products and to enable them benefit from the
international market.
The Minister for Agriculture,
Animal Industry and Fisheries, Vincent Ssempijja, while speaking at the
official opening of the National Agricultural Show at the Source of the Nile
grounds in Jinja on Tuesday, said the international market demands that all countries
producing foodstuff and crops for the European market produce its traceability.
‘‘They want to know where the
products are coming from; they have been impounding and banning all
consignments from Uganda if they find one box with issues,” he said.
The minister added: “Farmers will
be registered and their products given barcodes so that if they find a problem
with one box, they look for the source and sort out the problem. We cannot
enter lucrative market unless farmers register.’’
According to Daily Monitor,
Ssempijja added that all the cows must be registered and given birth
certificates.
‘‘For cattle farmers, it is going
to be worse. You will be registered as a farmer, the cow will be registered,
numbered and will have a birth certificate because the importers of our
products demand meat for cows aged between 15 to 24 months. So we are going to
sell depending on their age,” he added.
Ssempijja stated that an audit
team from the European Union was expected in Uganda in September this year to
ensure that all farmers producing commodities destined for Europe were
registered.
‘‘Apart from traceability of the
products, the team also wants to ensure that farmers benefit directly because
many of them are cheated by middlemen. Government will not cater for those who
defy the order when it comes to markets,” Ssempijja said, refuting allegations
that the registration exercise was aimed at cheating farmers through imposing a
tax on them which was scrapped on July 1.
In his message delivered by the
Prime Minister, Dr Ruhakana Rugunda, President Museveni said Ugandans needed to
be more competitive in order to effectively and sustainably penetrate the
international market.
“People want to know what they
are buying to eat, where it is coming from, its quality and what they are
spending their money on. Registering farmers is a major requirement; we cannot
do without it and if we ignore it, we will lose to competition in the
international market,’’ President Museveni said.
The Food and Agriculture
Organisation (FAO) representative in Uganda, Mr Antonio Querido, said Uganda
needed livestock traceability for better agricultural product transaction on
the international market.
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