Sugarcane land-use and its impact on food security :

Abstract

Undernourishment is a major public health issue in several developing countries including Uganda. Sugarcane farming practiced in several districts of the East-central Uganda is reported to be threatening food and nutrition security. Hence the study was to establish the. impacts of sugarcane growing on the level of food security in Busede Sub County located in Jinja district. In view of the above, this thesis attempts contribute to the knowledge of the different land. uses in the. area and there contribution. The specific objectives are: to assess the proportion of land use allocated to Sugarcane growing and food production, la assess the profitability of sugarcane growing, to assess the best combination of food and sugarcane production and to give appropriate land use combination that ensures food security and income. The analytical- assessments and evaluations in this thesis indicate that the major land use in Busede Sub County was sugarcane growing and the majority of the land for the production. of food crops was being converted to growing sugarcane. This pressure is likely to continue with consequent negative impacts on, the level of food security and nutritional health of the people in the study area hence the need of an optimal crop enterprise. Linear programming and calculation of the different values was used in excel and ILWIS was used to digitise and acquire information required for the study. Results. and findings where represented inform tables pie charts and graphs. The finding indicated that sugarcane growing alone can result into food security since the incomes got were not able to meet the food needs of the people involved. Thus an optimal crop enterprise was recommended where by farmers engage in both sugarcane growing and food crop production in order to be able to meet their food and income requirements. Other recommendations included by educating the small scale sugarcane farmers in improved techniques and proper use of available resources, adopting the practice of having small gardens in there compounds or acquiring more land for food production, use of improved seed varieties which are resistant to the circumstances of climate change, adopting the Culture of saving their incomes for the future. Keywords: Food security, Nutrition, Food crop production, Sugarcane production, Optimal crop enterprise