Africa-Press – Uganda. Sembabule Resident District commissioner, Mr Caleb Tukaikiriza, has advised Ugandans to reduce alcohol consumption and instead embrace taking milk which has nutrients much needed in the body.
According to the 2023 report released by the World Health Organisation, WHO, Uganda ranks first in alcohol consumption on the African continent.
On average, according to the WHO report, a Ugandan consumes 12.21 litres of pure alcohol annually.
Men consume more than women, with an average of 19.93 litres of pure alcohol annually compared to 4.88 litres for women.
“How can we win a continental medal in alcohol consumption which causes problems to our bodies and ignore milk which has nutrients? This is a bad image we must swiftly change as a country and embrace milk consumption which helps our bodies,” Mr Tukaikiriza said during the June Milk Month celebrations in Sembabule Town on June 23.
The annual International Milk Day falls on June 1, but some countries celebrate the day on different dates within the same month.
Mr Tukaikiriza said Uganda can increase its per capita milk consumption by encouraging parents to give milk to their school going children as recently proposed by the government.
Per capita milk consumption in Uganda currently stands at only 62 litres, which is far below the 200 litres recommended by the World Food Programme.
“I am happy to see that school children are the majority here and I am sure they will take the message back to their parents that milk is good and need to be part of their diet daily,” he said
Mr Richard Ambamu, the chairperson of Sembabule District Dairy Farmers Cooperative Union decried the increasing fake animal drugs and acaricides on the market which he said is affecting milk production in the country.
As of December 2021, the country produced 2.81 billion liters of milk annually. A total of 800 million liters were consumed within Uganda, with over 2 billion liters available for export annually.
“We have persistently complained about fake drugs on the market which has failed the fight against ticks and we hope government will this time do something to save this sub sector,” he said
Dr Anna Rose Ademun, the commissioner of Animal Health, said the government will soon come up with acaricide zoning as a lasting solution to the tick resistance problem in the cattle corridor.
“With zoning we will be able to know what acaricide works in what region so that we can properly guide farmers instead of them mixing the drugs,” she said
Mr Fred Kyakulaga Bwino, the state Minister for Agriculture who was chief guest, said the dairy sub sector has potential to become Uganda’s number one value added revenue earner if more Ugandans increase the quantity of milk they take daily.
“We are confident that once we address the challenges we currently face in the milk value chain, milk will soon become a game changer for our economy,” he said
The minister said although Uganda is one of the largest milk exporters on the African continent, it has the potential to earn one billion dollars in the next 10 years.
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