Tag Archives: trees

NRM limiting Uganda family to three children

There are reports including on Ngoma Radio that NRM government plans to limit children per couple to three. The argument is that land is limited and there is no room for more people. There is something fundamentally wrong with this approach. Here are some thoughts. Details of my work are posted at www.kashambuzi.com

1. UK which has the same geographic size as Uganda has twice the population size of over 60 million.

2. Netherlands which has one of the highest population densities in the world is cultivating less land than before because productivity is very high.

3. Uganda needs to increase agricultural productivity and reduce extensive agriculture of clearing more land for crop cultivation and ranches. Also Ugandans should be trained for work outside agriculture so there is less pressure on the land.

4. Uganda statements are contradictory. On the one hand NRM preaches that Uganda has surplus arable land and is encouraging a liberal immigration policy to bring in more people from outside. East African economic integration and political federation will allow more people to move into Uganda. It doesn’t make sense to restrict Uganda families to three children when we are encouraging others to come into Uganda especially from neighboring countries of DRC, Burundi and Rwanda.

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The curse of resource abundance in DRC

The abundance of resources in DRC – elephants and their tusks, rubber trees and their latex, vast and varied minerals, fertile soils and adequate rainfall, rivers suitable for navigation that also have waterfalls in sections essential for the production of hydroelectric power, and resilient people – should have turned the country into a first class industrial nation with rich people enjoying a high life expectancy. Instead DRC has been ruthlessly exploited, has suffered keptocracy (government of thieves), wars and massive loss of lives and displacements, and human rights abuses including sexual violence with impunity thereby turning the country into a third class pauper with the majority of Congolese among the poorest on earth. How did resource abundance turn into a curse? But first, let us briefly review the situation before plunder began.

Before the Congo basin became a part of the global community, the Congolese had developed strong kingdoms like Kongo and Luba. Economically they engaged in mixed farming growing a wide range of crops and herding cattle, goats and pigs etc. The foodstuffs were supplemented by hunting wild game, gathering wild fruits and vegetables and catching wild fish. Together they provided adequate and balanced diet in quantity and quality for a healthy, active and productive life. Because they ate well, they developed resistance against disease, had relatively low death rate and rapid population growth.

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