JINJA RDC Richard Gulume Balyainho laments at the alarming rate of land fragmentation which continues unabated in the district in spite of intensified sensitization of the population through different platforms.
Gulume observes that the main culprits of the retrogressive practice are the impatient youth who want quick money to migrate to urban centres and begin leading reckless lifestyles.
The RDC in an interview lists traditional inheritance, population growth, land markets and cultural perspectives as factors triggering land fragmentation in the region which has always hit the headlines as one of the poorest in the country of more than 45million people.
“…it’s now a common practice that upon the death of the father who is the head of the family, children, especially the males subdivide the land which gives room for them to sell off cheaply …”,he said.
He said most of the young people resort to bodaboda riding after squandering all the proceeds from the sale of the family land and end up in towns and other urban centers leaving behind widows and elders without any source of livelihood.
Gulume also accuse some youth of being agents of insecurity by grabbing institutional land belonging to religious organizations and government facilities that were donated by their grandparents.
He cited Mawoito village in Buwenge Sub County where some youth had moved to grab land hosting Mawoito Primary School and Mawoito Church of Uganda which have been in existence since the early 1950s.
“…there is a new trend of habit especially among the youth who attack schools, churches, mosques and health centres claiming the land belong to them having inherited from their dead grandparents, simply because the facilities do not have titles…”,he observed.
To avoid such unfortunate scenarios, the RDC has urged the leadership of religious bodies especially the Church of Uganda (Busoga Diocese) to be proactive by getting certificates of titles for all their land.
On school dropout as a challenge, Richard Gulume notes with concern that most school age going children are always encouraged by their parents and guardians to work in sugar cane plantations purportedly to get money.
He also blamed some residents for renting out their land at give away prices to wealthy and crafty sugar cane farmers, causing food insecurity and poverty in Jinja and the region as a whole.
“…in most cases these people plant sugar cane up to the courtyard, making people think that households are doing so well, yet families have no food to support their members,,,”,the RDC pointed out.
The most affected areas include big-sugar cane growing zones like Buyengo, Butagaya and Busede sub counties.
On a positive note, Gulume who heads the District Security Committee disclosed that they have reduced cases of motorcycle theft that had become rampant in the district.
“…we urge residents especially the local leaders and riders to always be vigilant and report people with dubious characters to relevant security agencies like the police for timely action…”Richard Gulume appealed.
He has asked residents to embrace all government anti-poverty and wealth creation projects like Parish Development Programme (PDM) and Emyooga, among others to improve their standards of living.
What You Need To Know:
Busoga and Elgon areas are some of the regions with the highest rates of land fragmentation where the average parcel size for most families is less than four acres.
In 2015 some local leaders proposed an ordinance to combat the stingy cultural practice of subdividing land into small pieces among family members, especially sons.
Frederick Ngobi Gume the then LC5 Jinja district who also doubled as the President Uganda Local Government Association (ULGA) had stressed the need for each of the districts in Busoga to pass the ordinance so that the region would become more productive.
Gume is now the Minister of State for Cooperatives and the MP Bulamogi North West in Kaliro district where he is serving the second term and might consider another term in 2026.
According to research findings, the more serious the degree of land fragmentation, the lower the efficiency of agricultural management and the lower the utilization rate of agricultural machinery, which directly leads to the reduction of cultivated land area.
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