Africa-Press – Uganda. The Grain Council of Uganda has unveiled a code of conduct that aims at ensuring quality of grain being produced in the country.
Speaking at the launch of the code of conduct in Kampala, the stakeholders said the code of conduct is aimed at eliminating issues of aflatoxins that have affected the marketability of the country’s grains such as maize, millet, sorghum, rice, and wheat.
“We are looking at ourselves as the sector players regulating ourselves. We are looking at processes right from production throughout the entire value chain, enforcing and observing guidelines that lead to safe food,” Mr Robert Mwanje, the chairperson of the Grain Council of Uganda, said.
He explained that the code of conduct entails the different roles, responsibilities of the stakeholders as well as the guidelines to be followed to ensure quality grain.
“The farmer as the producer has to make sure that he undertakes the best practices. Is he or she harvesting the grain at the right time. Is he threshing it properly? Then when it gets to the level of aggregators, are they following the provided guidelines? What of the transporters? So all these have to be guided to avoid contamination,” Mr Mwanje said.
“So this is actually a campaign to make sure that we regulate ourselves. The regulators; Minister for Agriculture Uganda National Bureau of Standards and the Ministry of Trade will come in only to endorse,” he added.
Mr Humphrey Mutaasa, the Chief Technical Advisor at the Grain Council of Uganda, said the document will be applied from production stage, to the cooperatives, all the grain handlers, transporters and processors, among others.
“We needed to organise and self-regulate because quality has become an issue in the market and for health reasons, And for that reason, the grain council, being the biggest handler, processor and buyer of grain in this country, launches a governing document that governs the processes that are going to be, done in their facilities,” he said.
Mr Mutaasa urged every member of the Grain Council to adhere to the practices that are written in the code of conduct.
“Why? Because there is a lot of informality of trade in Uganda, particularly for grain, and us not having an authority that governs and manages the practices of grain in Uganda, we come up with regulations that are self-driven, everybody must adhere to the practices of the grain Council code of conduct,” he said.
“So how are we going to apply this we are going to apply it from production, all, the cooperatives, all the farmers, all the handlers, all the transporters, every processor, everybody who is adding value to grain, and even the consumers, every buyer and trader, every business person that trades in grain and grain products, you must know that there is a code of conduct to make sure that it governs your practices in your business,” he added.
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