Farmers asked to embrace social media to sustain food supply chain

Kampala, Uganda | THE INDEPENDENT | Farmers have been advised to shift from person-to-person interfaces and embrace online technological innovations to support food production and the supply chain.

Associate Professor Alex Ariho, the Director-General of Excel Hort Consult Agribusiness incubator in Biharwe, says that farmers need to borrow a leaf from religious leaders who have embraced social media tools and platforms to maintain contact with their flock.

Ariho says that the agricultural technical service may come to a halt if farmers do not embrace ICT and for food production during a time when the world is battling a lethal virus which has killed thousands of people globally and paralyzed key sectors of the economy.

He urged farmers to adopt food preservation systems to avoid facing the same challenge in the future.

But farmers are also asking government to provide special financing to enable them to sustain the food supply chain amidst the continued COVID-19 pandemic surge.

The president of Uganda National Farmers Federation Dr Dick Kamuganga says that although banks might stop giving out loans to farmers, they are proposing a special window of financing to support continued food production and supply chain.

He asked the government to create food hubs to help supply food to the most vulnerable.

Edmund Bashasha, a farmer in Bushenyi, says the youths that were employed in bars, saloons, and public transport sectors are now redundant and should utilize this period to engage in farming in order to increase food productivity at the household level.

******

URN