Farm resources, gender and water use practices in livestock-based livelihood systems of Kiruhura district, South western Uganda
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Date
2009-06-15
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Publisher
Journal of Animal & Plant Sciences
Abstract
Uganda’s south-western rangelands have capacity to improve farm productivity but are
hampered by scarcity of water. The purpose of this study was to establish the current status
of farm crop and livestock enterprise management systems, gender allocation of livestock,
crop and human watering activities and assess prospects for using improved technology for
livestock and domestic water storage, conveyance and utilisation, and small scale irrigation.
One hundred households were selected from two sub-counties to represent crop-livestock
and semi-transhumant cattle systems using purposive, multi-stage and systematic random
sampling procedure. Findings of the study indicate that cattle contribute up to 89% of
household livelihoods, banana is a dominant crop enterprise in Kazo (5.3 acres) and sweet
potatoes are common in Kikatsi (1.4 acres). The main water catchments in the community
are by roof catchment (41%) and sloping surfaces (36%). Of the households with the
potential to harvest from their roof tops only about 50% exploit this option. The main
sources of water for domestic uses, however, are own dams and shallow wells at 34 and 21%,
respectively. Regarding gender and water collection, results show that all household
members contribute towards water collection but where males are concerned they rely on
bicycles (48%) whereas girls and women mostly (75%) carry water on their heads. Livestock
watering is largely communal as only about 40% of the farmers have own individual valley
dams. The need to have affordable and sustainable water storage and utilization systems
particularly for livestock production was determined. By improving water collection and
storage at household level not only will labour be released for other activities but the
drudgery to which the female folks are exposed will be reduced. Due to increasing
sedentarised cattle keeping coupled with extended fencing and exclusion, trespass is a
serious offence in the area. Individual valley tanks should therefore be promoted in place of
communal dams. The current watering systems that promote siltation of storage systems
due to widespread use of mud troughs should be addressed by improved water storage,
lifting/pumping and distribution systems. The technologies that may be explored to
improve water storage on the farms include roof catchment and surface run off harvesting
using ferrocement and polyethene tanks, and individual household preferably polyethene
lined valley dams/tanks. Lifting water from storage systems could be enhanced by
windmills and treadle (foot) pumps.
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Citation
Nanyeenya, W. N., Mutumba, C., Mutyaba, C., & Wanyama, J. (2009). Farm resources, gender and water use practices in livestock-based livelihood systems of Kiruhura district, South western Uganda. Journal of Animal & Plant Sciences, 4(1), 304-310.