Authors:
Komushaago, B, Fina, O. and Osiru, D. ,Uganda |
Abstract:
Innovative and sustainable use of land for agricultural production is one of the strongest
contributors to food systems across the globe. Access to enough land is of paramount importance
to enhancing the welfare and household food security. Land fragmentation is a universal trait of
all agricultural systems which affects agricultural productivity and no one has documented a
rural society where there is no land fragmentation. This study of the effects of land fragmentation
on smallholder food production in Rukiri Sub-County Ibanda District. The specific objectives
were to; determine the land size, nature of fragmentation and production status of households,
assess the causes and effect of land fragmentation on household food production and explore the
current household adaptive mechanisms to fragmented parcels and propose innovative measures
of enhancing production on small sized parcels. The study was a cross sectional survey
employing both qualitative and quantitative approaches for data collection and analysis.
Information was collected from a sample of 288 farming households and other key informants
using questionnaire and interviews. Data was analyzed using Microsoft EXCEL and SPSS
Version 21.0 to generate both descriptive and inferential statistics. The study established 2.3
acres as the average household land holding size. Land fragmentation in Rukiri Sub-County was
as a result of population increase, poverty, family wrangles, communal land conflicts and legal
provision based on inheritance divisions. The study established that land fragmentation had
effects on over all farm productivity by escalating soil exhaustion, wetland and forest
degradation, limiting agricultural mechanization, production of large space profitable crops like
banana and coffee, reducing per unit area of production and increasing travelling time and cost of
traveling between plots. Farmers had adapted and enhanced food production on small sized
parcels by improving soil fertility with organic and inorganic fertilizers, crop diversification,
practicing agrosilvipastoral, integrating soil and land management approaches, growing shorter
cycle crops and hiring land from neighbors. The study concluded that land fragmentation had a
significant effect on smallholder food production in the area. It therefore recommends that
Government through relevant Ministries, Ibanda District Local Government and community
leadership should come up with mechanisms to address house hold land conflicts, review the
land use decree to grant genuine access to contagious land holdings, strengthen population
growth control programs and mechanisms of improving productivity on small sized plots like,
growing of low space requiring crops, improved high yielding crop varieties, agrosilvipastoral,
integrated soil and land management approaches. |
