Ending hunger and poverty – MDG No.1 – by 2015, is faced with many setbacks: the droughts, poor farming practices, post harvest losses, lack of quality inputs, the list is endless, as seen from expert knowledge. Yet the three groups of people – farmer, food vendors & consumers – affected by hunger and poverty identify the problem as being from a different source. First the farmers see it as coming from poor access to lack of access to market and market information. Second, the food vendors see it as coming from the long chain of middlemen in the food supply chain. And lastly, the poor consumers see it as originating from hiking food prices, which makes them to keep borrowing in order to have what to eat or else survive on nothing. But whose responsibility is it to end hunger and poverty? Whose realities count the most?
Food on the table and money in the pocket
Why not allow the plight, prospects and success of the poor and hungry guide our investment? As we surveyed 3000 farmers, 50 bulk buyers and 60 input sellers in Nakaseke, Mukono, Wakiso, Kampala, and Mpigi districts, it becomes evident that farmers are specific and aware of what keeps them penniless and unable to keep food on the table. Conclusions were overly centred on sentiments like:
We are tired of government handouts. How far the government does thinks it can go with this method? Let them provide us with markets and we shall take care of our needs. Currently whatever we produce rots in stores – the beans, maize etc. Farmers are discouraged to follow any one’s advice any more. Those who can are moving to the nearest towns for alternative sources of income....
It is frustrating for us, we sell our produce so low and we buy other necessities of life so high. Who is benefiting from our sweet? Can’t someone do something for us?
It is like no one cares for the farmers. The politicians just come when it is time for asking for votes with a bar of soap, a kilo of sugar etc. And thereafter they never think about us again. The middlemen only tell us what helps them pay the least for our produce.
Food vendors equally feel being held by the neck, in an economy where the biggest part of the population spends over 70% of their income on food. Vendors tell that, they receive the food at very high prices to get it to the last consumers any cheaper. Conclusions were overly centred on the sentiment below:
