Posted on July, 18, 2018 at 10:04 am
Agriculture Minister Vincent Ssempijja has said Ugandas agricultural produce has not attracted regional markets due to poor post-harvest methods. Ssempijja said the majority of farmers dry their produce on bare ground and as a result, the produce gets contaminated with dust and stones which compromises its quality and marketability. “We need to handle food in the correct way. It should not be dried on the ground to get mixed up with stones, it has to be clean,” Ssempijja said.
He made the remarks during the Official opening of the 26th National Agricultural Trade Show at the source of Nile Hotel in Jinja town yesterday. The 10 day event which kicked off last Friday is running under the theme, “Fostering agricultural value chain innovations for farmer-led food security household income and job creation.” Ssempijja said one of the major objectivbes of the agricultural show was to heighten awareness on eliminating hunger but he regretted the low utilization of fertilizers which he said stood at 2.5%.
Source: New Vision | Wednesday, July 18, 2018 | Page 9