President Yoweri Museveni has advised all leaders in Uganda to strongly decampaign the act of land fragmentation that mostly results from the backward traditional practices such as inheltance rights that do not take care of the productivity and economic benefits of land as a factor of production.
The President made the appeal last evening while meeting Members of Parliament from Busoga Sub-Region under their organization “Busoga Parliamentary Caucus” led by their Chairperson who is also Parliamentary Speaker Rt. Hon. Rebecca Kadaga. The meeting took place at the President’s home in Rwakitura, Kiruhuura district.
Mr. Museveni noted that in a country like Uganda whose big percentage of the population depends on agriculture for survival, it was suicidal to fragment the land because it affects its production potential thereby condemning the population to abject poverty.
He told the Busoga Members of Parliament that one major cause of poverty in the sub-region was land fragmentation and stressed the need to urgently sensitize the population to appreciate the fact that in modern capitalistic world, land is meant to produce wealth and the family or land owners share the dividends from the land rather than fragmenting the land into small units that may not be viable economically.
“In modern capitalistic times, the working principle is capital accumulation as opposed to wealth disbursement. It is common in Uganda that businesses and economic estates do not live beyond their founders just because the estates are shared among the different beneficiaries making it very small and un-productive”, the President noted.
He impressed it upon the Busoga legislators that the population needs to be guided on several matters of the socio-economic nature that have contributed to poverty in several parts of the country. He singled out the poor land tenure system, inheritance rights, poor family structures and traditional briefs as some of those that need urgent attention.
Regarding the demand for an affirmative action development programme for the sub-region, the President said that the government was more than willing to support such a programme. He told the meeting that the government was not short of funds to support the programme but asked the Parliamentarians to formulate a programme and show how it will be implemented.
The President told the Busoga legislators that government will work on several roads, extend electricity and repair bridges but cautioned them to appreciate that this intervention per se could not cause reasonable change in the region without working on improving household incomes. He said that the development of the area depended more on raising and improving family income rather than infrastructural development.
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