Farmers in Busia have expressed concern over the negative impact the “Tupatupa” weeds continues to have on the forest cover and farming at large.
The weeds survive by twinning themselves on trees’ top cover, the leaves and flowers of the plant and eventually kill the trees.
The weed attracted its nickname “Tupatupa” from the nature of how it easily gets transplanted from one tree to another by just picking a small piece and attaching it to another tree, and eventually grows and destroys the plants.
“Tupatupa has really affected my trees and fence, it started as something small at my fence, I thought it was decoration, before I even realized it, it had covered all the trees in my compound,” said George Otwane, a resident of Busia.
Farmers are now resorting to cutting down the affected trees or pruning the leaves and then burning to reduce the chances of spreading.
“My trees are now drying up, yet I can’t tell the real course,” he added. Tupatupa is very dangerous as most plants get attached and end up drying up.
Now the farmers are calling upon the national government and county government to address the matter so that they avoid counting losses.
By Absalom Namwalo
