By Richard Mukisa
The Resident District Commissioner of Luuka district, Samuel Musiho, has urged farmers exploiting wetlands to relocate as directed by government or else they will face the wrath of the law.
“The restoration of wetlands shall benefit both human beings and nature,” he said.
Musiho said government intends to gazette wetlands in Uganda to ensure compliance, adding that consistent restoration of wetlands would help eradicate poverty and combat climate change.
He was on Tuesday May, 09th addressing a section of successful farmers drawn from different parts of the district who are being prepared to benefit the Micro-scale Irrigation Program.
This program is part of the Intergovernmental Fiscal Transfer Reform Program (IFTRP) and is supported by the World Bank through the Uganda Intergovernmental Fiscal Transfer Program (UgIFT).
The Micro-scale Irrigation Program is in line with Uganda’s National Irrigation Policy which aims to create 1.5 million hectares of irrigated land by the year 2040.
The Micro-scale Irrigation Program supports farmers to purchase and use individual irrigation equipment through a matching grant scheme, in which the cost of the equipment is co-financed by the farmer and the government.
The Program caps the support to 2.5 acres (1 hectare), thus it is expected to benefit mainly smallholder farmers interested to transition from mainly subsistence to more commercial agriculture.
In addition, the farmer receives complimentary services such as extension support in irrigated agriculture.
“The introduction of irrigation will help smallholder farmers grow crops all year.”
Farmers will be able to cope with dry spells, produce during the dry season, transition to higher-value crops, such as horticultural crops and coffee, and hit the market when prices are more advantageous,” says a Ministry of Agriculture official.
