By: GNNA Editor
Nwoya
Amidst the ongoing eviction of Balaalo from Northern Uganda, some locals in Nwoya district are positioning themselves to revamp livestock keeping with an aim of improving their local breeds.
In the two sub counties of Anaka and Purongo, lies a large expanse of land measuring 3,000 acres that hosts Nwoya Pamina-Owot Livestock Farmers Cooperative Society Ltd.
It was registered as a cooperative in 2020 with 213 members from the two sub counties. The communal grazing land has 1963 heads of cattle divided into 11 kraals.
Michael Owiny a 56 year old who is the chairperson of the cooperative said the facility started in 1958 and it was the biggest by then in the district.
But due to the 1971-1979 reign of President Iddi Amin which was characterized by instabilities, the cattle were looted. The situation worsened further in 1986 during the takeover of the current government from President Tito Okello Lutwa.
Owiny explained that because of the situation at that time the cooperative was closed. But in 1977 when peace started returning in Northern Uganda, a few of Nwoya residents who had gradually acquired cattle started bringing them back to the communal grazing land.
With the coming in of the Northern Uganda Social Action Fund (NUSAF I and II) with restocking program, people who benefited, preferred to have their cattle kept jointly.
However due to the insurgency, the untitled farm land was encroached on by 12 families who have occupied 1000 acres and the matter is already in court.
Getting hybrids to improve local breeds
The resilience exhibited by Nwoya livestock farmers has attracted the Ministry of Agriculture Animal Industry and Fisheries to support them with 18 Ankole bulls from Aswa ranch, a government facility located in Pader district which is under National Animal Genetic Research Center (NAGRIC).
According to Owiny, once all the bulls have arrived, the local breeds will start changing within one year to offspring’s that can weigh to at least 150kgs from 30kgs. To achieve their target, all local bulls have been castrated.
In 2021, Bright Rwamirama the Minister for Animal Industry while in Nwoya promised to give the cooperative bulls to improve on the local zebu breeds, tractor, construct a cattle dip and provide a milk cooler.
So far, the first batch of 10 bulls arrived on November 17, 2023. NAGRIC has also signed a Memorandum of Understanding with the Cooperative which will run for the next five years.
He also said under the five-year time frame, NAGRIC will offer services that will include artificial insemination, drugs, spraying and pasture modification.
The cooperative was also supported by Gen. Salim Saleh the Chief Coordinator of Operation Wealth Creation with shs50m.
“We are using the money to buy drugs and spray the cattle on a weekly basis. Since this place is near the park, it has a lot of Tse-Tse flies which causes Nagana. We need to keep spraying,” he told GNNA.
Nyamukino land victims into cattle farming
Samuel Rubangakene and his brother Samuel Onek are among the 29 families that were successfully settled through a land mediation and they received Shs2b as compensation for their land in Nyamukino.
The compensation process which was facilitated by Gen. Salim Saleh with the help of the district and cultural leaders, has opened ways for the two to invest part of their compensation into cattle keeping.
The duo had initially been keeping their cattle in their additional land located in Nyamukino parish in Lungulu sub-county but when a family land conflict broke out, they shifted back to their original land in Agung village, Pabali parish in Anaka sub-county.
But since they had accumulated many heads of cattle yet they had limited grazing space in Anaka, they opted to shift their animals early this year to a communal grazing land under a cooperative.
Keeping a herd of 58 cattle, mainly the local breeds, it was not easy to look after them as individual farmers as compared to where they are today.
Forming their own kraal to make a total of 11, the duo noted that there is need for training cattle farmers to understand how cattle can be kept well to realize high benefits.
“We were keeping cattle before. It was hard to abandon the activity. But after joining the cooperative, we are glad that the government has supported us with the hybrid bulls to improve on the local ones,” Rubangakene explained.
Benefits of joint ownership
Under the collective ownership, the cooperative has planned to establish a milk cooler for storing large quantities of milk as a strategy of attracting better market prices than selling in peace meals.
At the moment, the cooperative is only producing 120 liters of milk on a daily basis of which a liter is being sold locally at Shs1200 in jerry-cans.
But the chairman anticipates that if a cooler is established alongside dairy cows, they will help to improve on the low milk production and storage thus better prices as it will be sold in busy towns outside Nwoya.
“If government can join hands with us to bring a cooler where we can store our milk in one center, it will be easy for farmers to benefit from the milk sale. We also have other products like skins and horns which are instead just being wasted away and yet they can be turned into valuable products,” Owiny noted.
DVO hopeful on cattle farming in Nwoya
The Nwoya District Veterinary Officer (DVO) Dr. Isiah Odokorach said whereas majority of the cattle being kept in Nwoya are for beef, cattle keeping can become more lucrative if hybrids are introduced.
Dr. Odokorach also noted that the available breeds cannot produce a lot of milk and even those that have are sometimes located very far and it becomes hard to transport it to collecting points due to poor road networks.
The officer also told GNNA that sources of water for production in the district are still very low and thus suggested the need to construct water valley dams to tap water during the rainy season and use it in dry season.
With only a few cattle crushes located in Got-Apwoyo, Lungulu and Purongo sub-counties, their usability is also limited due to the farmers who have opened gardens around them.
“Cattle owners fear to use them for fear of their animals trampling on crops. For instance, there was Foot and Mouth Disease in Lulyango parish, Lungulu sub-county but it was hard to access the cattle crush due to the presence of gardens around,” the DVO observed.
He however recommended equipping the DVO’s office with quicker means of transport other than a motorcycle to reach distant places like Nyamukino parish which is 70 kms away.
Nwoya district has an estimate of 60,000 heads of cattle including those belonging to migrant cattle keepers and it has five veterinary doctors.
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