Today’s guest, Anna Rose Ademun Okurut (Ph.D.), is a Ugandan health scientist. She is the Commissioner in Charge of Animal Health in the Ministry of Agriculture, Industry, and Fisheries of Uganda. She is also the Acting Director in charge of Animal Resources. In her stay with The Ethiopian Herald, Dr. Anna Rose has raised a range of issues directly related to the East African country’s natural resource potential, challenges, and remedies for exploiting resources. Have a nice read!
East African countries are seriously affected by numerous challenges, including recurrent drought. As a result of that, they have remained poor and backward for a long time. What do you think is the primary reason for that?
I think that most of our production is based on nature. Not only crop production but also animal husbandry is heavily reliant on rainfall. And those activities could not move when there was no rainfall, no water, and no pasture. So, people will move from one end of the country to another, sometimes crossing countries. So, these traditional ways of production, which depend on nature, are the things that are keeping us in this state of poverty and backwardness.
We need to move from depending on nature for production to organizing and putting production in our fingers and hands. For instance, we need to establish large water systems for the communities, like pumping water from a large reservoir, a lake, or a river and then bringing it to the community from a higher area. When we have done that, we can distribute the water by gravitational force, and this water should be in large quantities, which should be enough to provide for livestock, pasture growth for the livestock, irrigation for the plants, and so on.
So, this will keep our population sedentary, keep them producing even high-value crops that they can sell to be able to get money in their pockets, and also, at the same time, continue producing the natural foods that they consume. For instance, we can develop tomatoes, potatoes, peppers, onions, and so on at high levels that can be sold as horticulture.
We can also apply the same to the production of Teff, sorghum, and other crops that we eat; accordingly, the lives of people will depend on those crops. If we have water, we can even grow pasture for the livestock. So, once we establish production that is within our control, what we require is to harness the nature that the Lord has given us so as to use it for our good.
But we should not only sit back and relax and just pray to God as he has already given us the water, the land, and everything necessary for human beings. We need to work on that land. Unless we use those resources, as they are scarce, we get what we have kept. As the rain falls, we let it go into the rivers, and it goes up a long way. And yet we pick up this water and keep it for the times when there is no rain.
Why do you think the recurrent drought has affected this area, especially the East African region?
Naturally, if you look at the world map, there is that region; that’s the nature of the world. The Earth is within the Solar System. The sun is, let’s say, at the equator level, Capricorn, and the other levels, so you find that level of the Sahara. If you go to Australia, it’s like a belt. It’s a belt of dry areas. So that is how God has made the earth naturally.
And those are the solar forces that pull the Earth toward the sun and the other planets. So that’s not our fault. We are here, and we have either fallen in a rainforest or fallen in a desert area. But that does not mean that we cannot harness nature within our resources to produce. I don’t think there is an area where we cannot harness resources to be highly productive.
This region is known for its huge resources. Why do you think that countries are not able to develop these resources for the use of their populations?
And so we need policies, laws, and the mindsets of our leaders, as well as our technicians, to lead us away from this. Because countries have potential and we always talk about that potential, I am a scientist. So I say that this potential is present. You must mobilize this potential energy into kinetic energy.
And that’s what I’ve spoken about: unless there is water in the river and the people can be as far from that river as possible, we don’t have water because we have to move 10 miles or 10 kilometers to collect that water. But when we change our policy and our technical inputs into this river, then we will pump that water from the river to the 20 kilometers up the hill and then distribute this water.
That is only when the river, which is our potential by nature, will change it into kinetic energy. This water will now move up the hill and come down to the farms to be used by our farmers to produce with control and not just pray to God—oh my god, it hasn’t rained.
And so God gave us the water, but it is potentially in the river. It’s potentially in that lake. So unless we pump that and make it useful to the people, otherwise it will be flowing. And when it rains, it rains up the hill, it runs down to the river, and it goes wherever the Lord has put the potential for the river to drain. So that potential must become kinetic; it must change potential energy to kinetic energy. That’s the emotional energy— the energy that is in emotion.
Africa is preparing to apply or implement the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA). How does this strategy help Africa ensure food security?
Food security is an overarching element that has to do with food safety. You can have a lot of food in a granary. You claim to be food secured as you have Teff full of sacks. However, if this Teff has aflatoxins, then that is not good for us to use. So, the food is not safe. The security
will be fake. You may be thinking that I have this Teff, but it’s full of aflatoxin, and when you eat it, when you feed it to yourself, and when you sell it, people are going to get affected by the aflatoxin or any other organisms that are in the food.
So with this strategy that we have made, we are addressing the issue of making sure that the food is safe. And one of the biggest parties is that we are going to ask all the countries to develop a comprehensive food law—a food law that covers all aspects from the bottom, from the farm level, to ensure that the soils are good and there are no infections that will go into the food, like aflatoxin fungus, which is in the soils as well. So, all these elements are in the food strategy. And we want all the countries to be at the same level.
So now that the Africa Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) is something we are trading, what we are getting from Uganda to Ethiopia is healthy, good, and wholesome, and we are eating the food. And therefore, we are only saying it is food if it is safe, but we are not just looking at food. And then it is food, and then we think it is food. And yet it’s poison to our bodies. So, that’s the value of food safety.
And of course, the food becomes contaminated when it has been harvested; it may get contaminated even before, but most times there are losses after harvesting. Because the people have harvested, they don’t have where to dry, it is raining, and then the grains become moldy, the cassava gets moldy, and so on, and therefore, after the farm has put in a lot of effort, it comes here and then it is again contaminated; then it is not food.
So, the post-harvest loss strategy focuses on reducing food loss and waste towards improving nutrition and food security in the IGAD region. And the post-harvest losses also have data for reducing what is not food. You may look at the food in quantities and anything, but this is because it is wholesome food.
Recently, IGAD validated its food safety and food loss management strategies. What is in it, and how could it be implemented?
What is in it is, first and foremost, a strategy to recognize that we have a problem. And these have been done in the strategy that recognizes the problem. Recognizing the problem, we had to set out a strategy at the regional level and identify what should be done. And our support at the IGAD secretariat is going to spearhead and make sure that they monitor what we are doing.
So we have spelled out what every country should have so that we have equal production and safe food and also equal reduction of food loss actually after harvest and post-harvest losses. So those are all the things that you are doing. So that is what we are going to do in our activities to prevent the losses.
So, how would these strategies be implemented?
The implementation mainly requires the leaders in the countries to take the strategy seriously. The biggest thing that we are doing is raising awareness. The first element is awareness creation, and that is why we need to be strong. A lot of people participated in the IGAD meeting held recently, but they don’t even know the food they eat, and they don’t even know what you are talking about.
So, raising awareness among the people, whether at the political or technical level, is the very purpose of the meeting. We, for instance, raise awareness among ministers and high-level officials. If they continue to perform as it is, we have to establish different systems like the inspectorate.
The laboratory that supports the inspectorate should establish and communicate within and between the countries of the IGAD region and further away. So, all those aspects would be a reality when we formed a food system, raised awareness, created laboratories, and established a strong inspectorate. Training is crucial for the inspectors, and so on.
All this includes the stakeholders in the awareness process, the farmers, the processors, and the producers, and we should now be able to communicate to the international community that it is good in the IGAD region that they can buy. And one day, when the international community touches on buying our food, we will know that we will have funding for our systems, and our farmers will benefit more.
If there is any important point you would like to raise, please take the chance.
I just wanted to thank the Ethiopian government. The nation recently announced that it has achieved self-sufficiency in wheat production, also known as import substitution. As a result, if imports are substituted, the funds that would have gone to purchase wheat are now plowed back into the system.
Therefore, taking the best practices from the growing nation, other nations should adopt the systems under study and also move into self-sufficiency so that we can relieve the funding to address aspects like education, health, and so on. So our nation will go. I would also like to add that Uganda is coming to benchmark Ethiopia, as you export live animals and meat to the Middle East.
So, we are coming to learn from you. Therefore, we have also heard about wheat. I think we will request that Ethiopia allow us to benchmark. So that we can grow our country’s arable land, and we should rely on agriculture as it is the backbone of our country. So, we look forward to learning from you as our brothers to improve our nation.
Thank you very much, doctor, for your time and willingness.
Thank you very much.
BY GIRMACHEW GASHAW
THE ETHIOPIAN HERALD SATURDAY 8 JULY 2023
