Posted on October, 26, 2018 at 09:50 am
By Micheal Woniala
Sironko — Farmers in Sironko District have accused their leaders of failing to replace the weather equipment that was stolen five year ago.
The equipment worth Shs25m was installed at Sironko District headquarters in 2012 to project weather patterns in the neighboring districts of Bududa, Bukedea, Bulambuli and Mbale.
The district production officer, Dr Patrick Okori, yesterday explained that the equipment was functioning well until 2014 when thieves stole the system, leaving the officials helpless.
"The thieves stole the equipment including recording gadgets that were linked to our computers. Now, we can no longer receive data on weather in our jurisdiction. This has rendered us helpless," Dr Okori said.
He added that they reported the matter to police but no arrests have been effected since then.
Dr Okori pointed out that due to lack of the weather equipment, farmers are not being updated on the weather patterns in the region.
"We don't have adequate data upon which we can base on to advice farmers on weather patterns and this is detrimental. We now rely on meteorological centre, which takes long to update us," Dr Okori said.
He added that because of the changes in weather patterns, some farmers misinterpret the seasons which sometimes makes them incur losses.
Another agricultural extension officer who preferred to comment on condition of anonymity, however, said they stopped giving weather updates to the farmers.
The source also blamed the district leaders of being negligent.
"Five years is too long. At least they should have got the solution to this but they have never prioritised it yet agriculture is the main source of livelihood here," he said.
Mr Hussein Masaba, a councillor and member of production and natural resources committee in the district, said councillors and other district leaders have always paid a deaf ear to anything that does not bring in revenue.
However, Ms Rose Manana, a councillor representing Bumasifwa Sub-county, blamed the technical staff of delaying the process of procuring new equipment.
Mr Eric Wamboza, a Maize farmer in Budadiri Town Council, said they now rely on indigenous knowledge to read weather updates such as reading patterns of the clouds to determine whether it will be a sunny day or a rainy one.
Source: Daily Monitor