Land division breeding poverty, says Museveni
Police trainees performing acrobatics at the pass out ceremony. Photo by George Muzoora
What you need to know:
Stop the practice. The President has cautioned on land use saying dividing land among family members renders it unusable.
Masindi.
President Museveni has said subsistence farming is one of the biggest causes of poverty at household level in the country.
According to the President, the problem has been aggravated by land inheritance, which leads to land fragmentation.
The President was on Wednesday officiating at the passing out of 2,406 youth from various universities who completed a month’s training as police crime preventers at Police Training School Kabalye, in Masindi District.
Mr Museveni said it is a big mistake to inherit land, especially in large families and sub-divide it into small plots that are parcelled out.
“Instead of dividing the land, you should have formed a company and produce together on the same piece of land and then share the profits among yourself,” he advised.
The training, which was held under the theme: “The fight against unemployment and poverty through enterprise, partnership and production,” was aimed at helping the youths on how to be self-reliant.
Apart from being taught basic skills at arms, counter terrorism and creation of opportunities and linkages, the youth received lectures in agriculture, industry, information communication technology, services sector and public service sector.
The President said agriculture is the biggest activity in Uganda because it employs many people. Adding that about 86 per cent of people engaged in agriculture are subsistence farmers who mainly inherit land and produce for their consumption.
“This is an archaic practice which should be avoided because you may end up dividing the land into micro land,” he said, adding that people in the United Kingdom, which is the same size with Uganda, do not inherit land.
“These people knew this problem because land is inelastic. So they could only have three sons and the oldest son is the one to inherit land and they say the second son should join the army and the third one should become a reverend,” he added.
Inspector General of Police Kale Kayihura said after the training, the youth are now value addition in terms of building the national economy.
“The biggest problem we face is lack of knowledge but we have been able to bring people with various skills to teach them,” Gen Kayihura said.
The youth pledged to be responsible, think creatively and come out with home grown solutions.
youth positive
The youth representative, Mr Blaise Kamugisha, told the President that the training programme has instilled in them a sense of conviction and mission.
