Cows will be registered, numbered and will have a birth certificate, the Ugandan government has said.
Uganda’s President Yoweri Museveni said the registration of the animals will make Uganda effectively and sustainably penetrate the international market.
"People want to know what they are buying to eat, where it is coming from, its quality and what they are spending their money on,"
Speaking during the national agricultural show launch in Jinja grounds on Tuesday, Museveni said that farmers will be registered too.
“Registering farmers is a major requirement. We cannot do without it and if we ignore it, we will lose to competition in the international market," he said.
Uganda’s Agriculture Minister for Agriculture Vincent Ssempijja said registering the country's farmers and their cows will aid in the traceability of their products and enable them to benefit from the international market.
“The importers of our products demand meat for cows aged between 15 to 24 months. So we are going to sell depending on their age,” he said.
Ssempijja said the international market demands that all countries producing foodstuff and crops for the European market produce its traceability.
‘‘They want to know where the products are coming from; they have been impounding and banning all consignments from Uganda if they find one box with issues,” he said.
The minister said registered farmers will have their products given bar codes so that if they find a problem with one box, they look for the source and sort out the problem.
Ssempijja said an audit team from the European Union is expected in Uganda in September to ensure that all farmers producing commodities destined for Europe are registered.
