Land disputes, population growth, and agriculture
Author, Michael J. Ssali. PHOTO/FILE
What you need to know:
- Land is like oxygen and every living thing must occupy some space on this earth. Everybody must eat and, in our circumstances, nearly all homesteads have to produce their own food
As the debate about the increasing land disputes rages, very little attention seems to be paid to the rapidly growing population that could actually be one of the major factors fuelling the conflicts. Uganda’s population growth rate is among the highest three in the world according to the Washington-based Population Reference Bureau (prb.org).
The World Population Review (https://worldpopulationreview.com) gives Uganda’s population growth rate as 3.32 percent and the fertility rate as 4.78 births per woman.
By last month, our population was given as 47,529, 564 and it is estimated that the country’s population will reach 100 million by 2050. There are certainly not enough resources for the big population.
Land is like oxygen and every living thing must occupy some space on this earth. Everybody must eat and, in our circumstances, nearly all homesteads have to produce their own food.
That food is in form of wildlife and farmed crops such as maize, banana, cassava, sorghum, potatoes and millet, and livestock products such as eggs, meat and milk.
Food and other farmed commodities are also exchanged for money which means the space or the land where they are obtained from is of big value. Yet land is not elastic.
God is not creating more land although He is creating more people all the time. If anyone wants land they must buy it, hire it, get it as a donation, maybe through inheritance, or grab it from a weak owner, which often leads to conflicts.
“Necessity knows no law,” is an old wise saying. Hungry people, eager to make a living; will invade a wetland or a natural forest to grow crops without first checking with National Environment Management Authority (NEMA), National Forest Authority (NFA) or the district land boards.
They want firewood to cook their food and materials for simple house construction.
They want to produce food. Land grabbing in Uganda is not only done by rich men escorted by gun wielding soldiers.
Our failure to carry out sex education and to teach the importance of family planning is also responsible for land grabbing and natural environment destruction. It disrupts biodiversity.
Mr Michael Ssali is a veteran journalist,
[email protected]
