Cassava Mosaic Devastates Gardens In Kabarole

http://ugandaradionetwork.com/a/story.php?s=53796

Farmers in Rwimi Sub County Kabarole district, who had turned to growing drought resistant crops like cassava, are counting losses after they were affected by diseases.

Since the beginning of this year, Rwimi has been experiencing prolonged dry spells and as a result all the rice fields and maize plantations have dried up causing food shortage.   Following the dry spell, farmers under their umbrella, Rwimi Farmers Association, started growing cassava to increase food production.

However, the cassava has been affected by Cassava Mosaic leading to poor yields.  The cassava leaves have all turned yellow and the root tubers turned brown.

Florence Sengoma, a farmer in Kakingi parish in Rwimi town council, says that two months ago, the cassava leaves started to turn yellow, but she was ignorant of what the problem was. She says that a month later her three-acre garden was affected by cassava mosaic.

She says she had hoped to reap big from growing cassava since all her maize and rice fields had dried up because of the dry spell.

Sengoma wants the district authorities to provide gravity water flow schemes in the area, to enable farmers pump water and irrigate their crop fields.

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Richard Byaruhanga, a farmer in Rwimi town council, whose garden has been affected by the disease, says he anticipates famine in the future, since he has nothing to eat or sell. Byaruhanga says that before he started growing cassava, his three-acre rice garden was destroyed by the dry spell.

Byaruhanga says that he spent more than three million shillings to purchase cassava cuttings, which were later affected by cassava mosaic.

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The Kabarole district production coordinator, Amos Mugume says officials from the National Crop Resources Research Institute (NaCRRT) in Namulonge have promised to supply disease-resistant cassava varieties like 2961 to farmers in the sub county and other parts of the district. Mugume says that last year, the varieties were tested on farms and have so far proved a successful defense against the disease.

He also says farmers are being encouraged to construct granaries where to store food for consumption and some for sell.

According to the Association for Strengthening Agricultural Research in Eastern and Central Africa (ASARECA), about 80% of Ugandans depend on cassava for their livelihood. Cassava is the second most widely grown staple food after maize in Africa.

According to the UN Food and Agricultural Organization (FAO), the cassava mosaic disease is the greatest constraint affecting cassava production in Sub-Saharan Africa.