Africa-Press – Uganda. While the livestock industry accounts for more than 65 per cent of the local resource envelope for Nakaseke District, the farmers lose an estimated 1,000 litres of milk per day that gets spoiled as a result of the poor road network to the milk collection centres and markets.
The 33km road stretch through the villages of Gwomero, Migani, Kagongi and Buwana where livestock farmers connect to Ngoma Town to access markets, has for the last five years been in a sorry state with milk trucks and individual milk traders often abandon the milk after failing to maneuver through the muddy road.
“It is true that we have the milk collection centres and milk coolers targeting the farmers from far areas, but the losses we make through the Wanjaga swamp including the other road sections that are in a sorry state becomes unbearable. We often abandon the milk after failing to maneuver through the muddy and potholed road stretch,” Mr Ismail Ssendisa, a milk dealer explained in an interview on Tuesday.
The Gwomero- Migani- Kagongi – Buwana road stretch is the nearest route for a bigger percentage of the livestock farmers and milk dealers to the milk coolers and milk collection centres.
“We are not beggars, but the losses we make due to the bad road network makes us become beggars. It is good news that the leaders have announced a plan to have the road upgraded,” he said.
Mr Emmanuel Namanya, a milk dealer claims that some livestock farmers are sometimes forced to sell the milk at Shs300 per litre while others abandon the milk by the roadside when the motorcycles and bicycles get stuck during the rainy season.
“The milk trucks that take this particular route are at the biggest risk during the rainy season,” he said
Mr Enoch Nyongore, the Nakaseke North Member of Parliament, said improving the road network would be a major breakthrough for the farmers.
“The new intervention is a welcome move to save the farmers from the losses. We also believe that once the government implements the presidential promise to have the road funding for each district increased to Shs1bn every year, the districts will have the capacity to maintain a bigger section of the district roads,” Ms Nyongore told Daily Monitor in an interview.
The districts currently get less than Shs700m per financial year to cater for the district roads. This explains why most district roads are in a sorry state.
Government through the Local Economic Growth Support Project (LEGS) funded by the Islamic Development Bank on October 20, 2021 commissioned the road works where the 33km Gwomero- Migani- Kagongi- Buwana Road stretch will be graveled at a cost of Shs2bn in a road works project expected to be complete in four months.
“The Islamic Development Bank through the Government of Uganda is funding the access road works upgrade totaling to 129kms in 10 selected districts under the Local Economic Growth Support Project (LEGS) Nakaseke District has been allocated 33kms out of the 129kms shared by the other 10 districts,” Mr Fred Bamwine, the Nakaseke Resident District Commissioner (RDC) who represented the Minister for Local Government, Mr Raphael Magyezi at the commissioning of road works said in a statement.
Under the LEGS Project funded by the Islamic Development Bank, the 10 benefiting districts will also benefit from the water for enhanced agricultural production and Environment, the value chain for vegetable and milk processing among other projects,” Mr Bamwine said.
Every morning, a truck carrying milk cans drives into the villages of Nakaseke District where small-scale farmers sell their milk, and the sale is recorded depending on the litres of raw milk delivered.
Available statistics from the Nakaseke District production office indicate that on average, 68,000 litres of milk leave the district for the market daily.
Daily milk consumption in Uganda is estimated at 2.7million litres. Available statistics indicate that Uganda currently produces 2.5billion litres of raw milk against the national consumption demand of Shs 800 million litres .
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