Uganda: Farmers count losses as wildfire consumes gardens

Over 100 farmers in Ntungamo and Itojo sub-counties in Ntungamo District are counting losses following a Thursday night fire that destroyed crops, trees, and other projects in the Butare-Ruhanga hills. The hills that stretch for about 2 square kilometres were gutted by the fire suspected to be from an arsonist, starting at around 9:30pm on Thursday until Saturday afternoon. Farmers have been using the hills for agriculture activities while using the lower part of the hill for settlement. "I have most almost all my crops. I started growing these crops about 8 years ago after I returned from Isreal in a project funded by the first lady. They taught us how to grow crops in hills, I put in all the money I had, now I don't know where I shall begin from. At least for the time I have been cultivating here, there has not been fire, now it came for me," Mr Enock Mwesigye, one of the affected farmers, told Daily Monitor on Sunday. Acres of eucalyptus, pine trees, pineapples, beehives, ...