| Title: | The causes of rural poverty in Uganda: A Case Study of Wakiso Sub County, Wakiso District. |
| Authors: | Kasule, Twaha Ahmed |
| Issue Date: | Dec-2005 |
| Abstract: | The problem of rural poverty in Uganda has persisted despite the various efforts by the government to alleviate it and its continued existence has impacted negatively on the overall development efforts in the country. This study sought to investigate the causes of rural poverty in Uganda, with a specific focus on Wakiso Sub-County found in the central part of the country. The results from this study have confirmed the observed phenomenon of a high level of rural poverty in Uganda. The most significant causes were found to be; large size of households, low education levels attained by the household heads, low asset holdings and insufficient expenditure on essential needs of life. It was recommended that greater attention should be focused on the provision of education to the poor, greater support for alternative income generating activities and encouraging the population to control the sizes of their families. Other recommendations included the provision of low rate credit facilities and encouraging the poor to diversify their asset holding. |
MY CHILDHOOD EXPERIENCE
Namutamba was the darling of many; an extremely beautiful environment with many very friendly and brotherly, and there was remarkable progress. The situation has since changed. The genesis of the Glory of Namutamba Parish within Mubende district of Uganda; which may better be termed as the cradle of civilization in Uganda was by the Lea Wilson family. These managed Namutamba tea Estate and Dairy Farm.
The Lea Wilson's
Namutamba Tea Estate
The family managed to get some workers from Rwanda as well. They started a primary school which later came to be known as Namutamba Demonstration. However, at the height of insecurity in 1972, Lea Wilson decided to live Uganda, and that marked the beginning of the decline of the Estate. Today, the estate is almost history. However, it is true that the workers were able to survive from the salaries and wages they got from the estate and today, some children of these are enjoying fairly god positions after the education the children were afforded.
WHAT IS WRONG WITH STRATEGIES OF DONORS TODAY?
It looks like donors across the board in Uganda are simply rewarding some of those holding big offices with connections to governance. Billions of shillings are given to help Government anti poverty strategies, unfortunately, when one gets to the rural areas, in many instances, it is like this money has never been disbursed. Many people are in offices but have the poverty mind and primitive accumulation is the way. You find a guy buying an arcade in town and you wonder where he/she gets the money from. The fact is there is a lot of paper work but money is stolen at the end of the day. Refer to just a few of the corruption stories below.
WHAT WAY FORWARD?
Donors or Foreign Governments with interest in Uganda should get to reach the people. They should have connections to identify what a specific community needs. Forwards and backwards linkages should be identified as the way forward in helping enhance development. A case in point is when we take Namutamba Parish; here people have cattle but it is not productive in economic terms. They need to be taught how to improve their herds and where possible helped with some loan facilities, in the meantime, infrastructure to process their milk can be organized. When enterprises of the nature are identified and the donors involved, their money will eventually see the people of Uganda out of poverty, not donations to Government much of which is subject to being stolen and diverted!
It is surprising that the cattle farmers at Namutamba are yet to get modern. Through the 1970’s to date one sees the cattle keepers at Kyetume using traditional methods. The fencing using natural trees which exploit the soil are the norm. Why are we not having trees which are food for cattle? Why don’t we have fewer cattle and emphasize quality vis a vis quantity? Why don’t we see farmers practice zero grazing for their cattle?
Strategy number one should be to see improved breeds of cattle. This can be done when we get in touch with Dr. Ssemambo at Entebbe Breeding Centre. With cattle which can give our farmers greater milk, these farmers will surely be in business. Dr. Ssemambo is on telephone number: +256772421469 and surely a strategy can be got by which he can ably send staff from his office to artificially inseminate cattle of the people of Namutamba.
These farmers should have water harvesting strategies so that much of the would be run off is collected, and even in gardens we should see that our people gather water that can irrigate their gardens. Given the dry season experience, the people of Namutamba should venture into strategies to make hay so that even when it gets dry, there is means to provide for the cattle.
The cattle keepers should ensure that the cattle get the right veterinary services. At this point in time it is bad news if our cattle keepers can have cattle which has ticks.
Below are some of the Cattle Management Strategies that can boost productivity
No comments:
Post a Comment