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ISSN : 2456-8643

Title:
EFFECT OF LAND FRAGMENTATION ON SMALLHOLDER FOOD PRODUCTION IN IBANDA DISTRICT’

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.

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