International Journal of Research and Innovation in Social Science (IJRISS) | Volume VI, Issue VII, July 2022 | ISSN 2454–6186
Knowledge Systems on Functioning and Resource Use Efficiency in Policy and Land Grabbing.
Ngonzi Wilson
Knowledge Systems for Agroecological Interventions.
I. INTRODUCTION
Uganda lies in east central Africa, has a tropical climate, and fertile agricultural land. The country has a population of some 42 million, and is mainly land-locked, with Lake Victoria dominating the south east of the country. Agriculture accounts for just under a third of land use, and the country’s main exports are coffee, fish, tea, tobacco and cotton. Some 15% of the country is covered by forest (U.S Department of State, 2012). Some 85% of the population live in rural areas and four in ten of the rural population, predominantly in the north and north east of the country, are considered to be living in abject poverty. Approximately five per cent of rural households are affected by food insecurity (Rural poverty portal, 2012).
Agriculture plays an important part in Uganda’s economy, with 80% of all jobs in the agriculture and fishing sectors. While some cash crops are grown for export (particularly coffee, tea, cotton and tobacco), many rural communities have traditionally relied on subsistence agriculture, growing cassava, corn, potatoes and millet, as well as plants for medicinal uses (U.S Department of State, 2012).
In 1998, the Ugandan Government launched a Vegetable Oil Development Project (VODP), supported by the United Nations International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD) and World Bank, to increase domestic production of vegetable oils in partnership with the private sector. This included the introduction of commercial oil Palm production, as well as more traditional oil seed developments in eastern and Midwestern Districts of Uganda (IFAD, 2011a). The Kalangala oil palm project aims to plant 10,000 hectares of oil palm on Bugala Island in Kalangala district in Lake Victoria. Bugala Island is one of the 84 islands in Lake Victoria which make up Kalangala district. The island has a population of around 20,000 people, who mainly depended on fishing, subsistence farming and tourism before the introduction of oil palm.
It is being taken forward by a partnership between the government and a private sector consortium, Oil Palm Uganda Limited (OPUL), formed in 2003. OPUL brings together foreign investment from:
• Global palm oil giant Wilmar International, one of the largest palm oil biodiesel manufacturers in the world. Wilmar has also benefitted from funding from the World Bank’s private sector arm but has been implicated in illegally logging rainforests, setting forests on fire and violating the rights of