EPRC reports shifting of food access patterns
CAPTION: A sampel cereals on display for sell. (File phot).
By Our reporter
MAKERERE – The Economic Policy Research Centre (EPRC) has reported shifting food access patterns where more households are increasingly relying on market purchases for their daily feeding needs.
While sharing research findings from the study the policy think-tank undertook to assess pathways in which road infrastructure affects food security, Swaib Mboowa, a Senior Research Fellow at the center said while it’s a common phenomenon for the urbanites to purchase all their food, the decline in own food production is gripping on rural areas at an alarming rate.
Mboowa was speaking shortly after Dr Henry Opolot, the Commissioner for Extension and Skills Management in the Ministry of Agriculture, Animal Industry and Fisheries, expressed concern that while more and more people are mainly accessing food through market purchases, issues of food safety have largely been ignored.
Opolot pointed out Kalerwe market, saying that this market is not suitable for handling vegetables as it lacks basic storage facilities, and in the end, sellers opt to use unsafe methods such as spraying tomatoes with chemicals for preservation, endangering the population.
While this is happening, he says there are warehouses which are not being fully used and a lot of wastage in areas of abundance.
EPRC says that to sustain the sourcing of food from markets, there is a need for a good network of infrastructure linking regions of surplus and those of deficit.
Fred Ahimbisibwe, a Senior Commercial Officer in the Ministry of Trade, Industries and Cooperatives, said that to strengthen market infrastructure to enhance household food security, they have started by going tough on product certification where by when it comes to grains, they can no longer go to the borders without going through proper checks.
He noted that they will later require SPS and Q mark certification to guarantee compliance with Sanitary and Phytosanitary (SPS) measures in addition to quality measures for all food entering the market.
