The Ugandan government has suspended seminars by the non-governmental organizations (NGOs) in Karamoja to allow local leaders to concentrate on food production.

"We have suspended all seminars in Karamoja till July to allow leaders and the communities prepare their gardens for planting food," Musa Ecweru, the minister for disaster preparedness, was quoted by the state-owned New Vision daily as saying on Monday.

"Seminars were useless when people go to sleep with empty stomachs," he said, suggesting that the money spent on seminars and studies should be used to help communities achieve sustainable livelihoods.

"Use those billions you spend on baseline surveys and needs assessment studies to help the Karimojong have food security. Use that money to prepare gardens, dress Karimojong children and provide them with beddings," said the minister.

The Ugandan government has launched the Food Revitalization Program for Karamoja late last week. Under the new program, the government wants to shift to large-scale food production to stop the region's dependence on food aid.

"We have secured over 200,000 hoes and several tons of seeds for the five districts in Karamoja," said Ecweru, while launching the program in Irriri sub-county headquarters on Friday.

"We expect Karamoja to double food production and produce both for domestic consumption and for commercial purposes," he said.

The food crisis in Karamoja, northeastern Uganda, has been escalating for years and was heightened by a severe drought in 2008, which led to a failed harvest, the region's third in a row since 2006.

The World Food Program (WFP) in January warned that food shortages in Karamoja would worsen. It attributed the situation to failure of the last harvest, which yielded only 30 percent of the expected output.

About one million people in Karamoja, where there is only one rainy season instead of two as in most parts of the East African country, are currently feeding on relief food distributed by the government and the WFP.