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Hon Kiyaga, also known as Hilderman claims marijuana farming is now the main economic activity in Mawokota, yet government security agencies continue to harass the poor farmers that are trying to earn a living.
“In my constituency, the main cash crop used to be coffee, but now as I speak it has been leapfrogged by marijuana,” Hilderman said in a televised interview Tuesday June 6th.
“I have taken this up with Parliament. I want the government to allow my small scale farmers to grow this crop because other people have been allowed to grow it. That means it is legal in the country,” he said.
The MP, who floored former Trade Minister Amelia Kyambadde in the 2021 elections, was referring to a company named Industrial Hemp Uganda, which was licensed to produce marijuana for export.
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The Kasese-based private firm is producing medicinal cannabis for export to Germany and China.
In 2020, the Government through the Ministry of Health approved export of medicinal marijuana, but only for producers with a minimum capital of Shs 18.3million.
But according to Hilderman, Government has no basis for segregating small scale farmers who are producing the same crop. Farmers in places like Kajaga, Kammengo, Muduma and others, he said, are constantly on the run from police.
“This is the only thing that Kammengo Police do all day; our people are tying of being on the run,” he added
The MP proposed that the Government should permit the local farmers to work as outgrowers, supplying their produce to the Kasese factory.
Then, they as leaders, he says, will come in to sensitize the locals against misuse of the crop.