Irrigation: The magic bullet govt needs to improve farming

In 2019, an unidentified UPDF officer driving a salon car knocked dead three pedestrians in Namayiba Trading Centre on the Mukono-Katosi road as he trailed illegal fishermen riding a motorcycle loaded with fish.

The soldier, whose car had overturned before it settled in a garden on the lower side of the road, sustained serious injuries and was whisked away by a boda boda rider to a medical facility in Mukono, saving him from being lynched by an angry mob.

Such risky operations risk lives of fishermen, communities around them, and law enforcement teams; yet, for instance in Namayingo District in eastern Uganda, government has used Mulwandha small-scale irrigation scheme as a magic bullet to uplift illegal fishermen’s livelihoods.

The Mulwandha fishing community now lives without fear of being involved in running battles with the UPDF Fisheries Protection Unit, jail time, and confiscation of their fishing gear.

The Mulwandha solar-powered small-scale irrigation scheme was constructed by Ministry of Water and Environment in 2022. It draws water from Lake Victoria and it is distributed to the 10.5 acres demonstration farm in Mulwandha village, Lubango parish in Mutumba sub-county.

The modern irrigation scheme provides alternative sources of livelihood to 23 former illegal fishermen who grow high-value crops such as green pepper, watermelon, tomatoes and onions whose ready market is in Namayingo and Busia districts.

Income from vegetable growing is three times higher than what they were getting from illegal fishing. An average vegetable grower makes sales worth Shs3.5 million compared to Shs2 million a farmer would earn from the five-acre maize growing per year. Farmers are economically empowered and thus they are able to access better social, education and health services.

The irrigation scheme being near the lake, has further effectively addressed adverse effects of climate change by enabling communities to fully rely on nature-based solutions such as cultivation of vegetables and fruits.

In other parts of the country such as Isingiro, Rakai, Arua, Moroto and Kasese, the adverse effects of climate change could manifest through low food production, increased food prices, food insecurity, water scarcity for agricultural production, and degradation of ecosystems. As a result, these factors continue to have direct and indirect impacts on agricultural production in Uganda.

When compared with her neighbours in the East African region, Uganda is fairly gifted with enormous natural water bodies, major sources of water needed for huge irrigation projects. These major water bodies include Lakes Edward, Albert, George, Victoria, Kyoga, and while major rivers include Aswa, Mpologoma, Manafwa, Kafu, Katonga, Rwizi, Kagera and the Nile river.

Yet Uganda’s ratio of cultivated area under irrigation to the irrigation potential is very dismal compared to Tanzania, Kenya and Burundi, according to our National Irrigation Policy.

Therefore, this is an urgent call to government to increase resource allocation towards modern irrigation to convince more youth to abandon illegal fishing practices. This would increase Uganda’s working population employed in agriculture which currently stands at 68 percent as estimated by the Uganda Bureau of Statistics.

As a result, more illegal fish farmers will adopt knowledge transfer and the skills to contribute to the agriculture sector which, in the Financial Year 2022/2023, accounted for about 24 percent of Uganda’s GDP and 35 percent of export earnings, according to the International Trade Administration, US Department of Commerce.

The writer is a media researcher

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