Ugandans risk suffering from more poverty, hunger - UN

Mr Jallow (Right) chats with Tororo Municipality MP Ofwono Yeri during the event in Entebbe last week. PHOTO BY ALEX ESAGALA.

What you need to know:

  • The increasing rate of environmental degradation, the UN say, threatens agriculture, a key sector of Uganda’s economic development.
  • Agriculture is under attack from long dry spells, high temperatures and soil infertility, which experts attribute to deforestation and wetland degradation, among others.

Entebbe- A top United Nations official has warned that poverty and hunger will continue in Uganda unless the current rate of natural resources depletion is tamed.

Ms Almaz Gebru, the UN coordinator who also doubles as the United Nations Development Programme Uganda Country Director, said weather patterns are changing for the worse and there is no way millions of Ugandans trapped in poverty and hunger will be alleviated if natural resources continue to be depleted.

“Poverty and hunger will persist when we do not use our natural resources, including forests, in a sustainable manner,” Ms Gebru said in a speech read for her by the UN Food and Agriculture Organisation Country Representative, Dr Alhajji Jallow last week.

Source of livelihood
Nearly 64 per cent of Ugandans derive their incomes and food, according to the 2014 National Population and Housing Census, from agriculture.
Agriculture is under attack from long dry spells, high temperatures and soil infertility, which experts attribute to deforestation and wetland degradation, among others.

These natural resources cause the formation of rainfall and their destruction means that there will be no or little rains. Ms Gebru made the remarks at the Reducing of Emissions from Deforestation and Forest Degradation and the role of conservation of biodiversity, sustainable management of forests and enhancement of carbon stocks policy dialogue in Entebbe, Wakiso District last week.

Mr Paul Mafabi, the director of environment affairs at the Ministry who represented Water and Environment minister Sam Cheptoris said the country has a target to plant 200 million trees by 2020.

“Uganda’s desire for greening economy and forest landscape restoration is the long-term process of regaining ecological functionality and enhancing human wellbeing across deforested areas,” he said.