Assessing the implications of sugarcane growing on food security in Kamuli district, a case study of Namasagali sub county.

Abstract

The major purpose of this study was to assess the implications of sugarcane growing on household food security in Namasagali Sub-county, Kamuli District. The study was guided by three objectives namely: to assess the level of food availability among sugarcane growing households in Namasagali sub-county; to assess the perception of sugarcane growing on food security for households in Namasagali sub-county find out the food security coping mechanisms used by sugarcane. growing households in Namasagali sub-county. This study adopted a descriptive study design which was cross sectional in nature 25 respondents were interviewed from each of the 4 parishes and only two villages were selected from the respective parishes where either 13 or 12 respondents were interviewed from the respective villages. The study relied mostly on primary data that was collected using questionnaires. Quantitative data was analyzed using descriptive statistics. Data from questionnaires was entered into statistical package for the social scientists (SPSS) version20 for analysis. The findings show that there has been re-allocation of land previously meant for food crops to sugarcane growing, and that cash income from sugarcane farming is not sufficient to meet household's food needs especially those owning land less than ten acres. Findings also show that households in the study area were able to cope up with food insecurity by adopting various coping mechanisms like gathering of wild food, eating stored food, eating less preferred, cheaper, or unhealthy food, reducing the portion size at meal times, reducing number of meals per day etc. Policies should be set up regarding sugarcane growing whereby every household head with less than five acres of land should be reserved for mixed farming, farmers should be sensitized to carry out crop diversification and they should be encouraged to carry out scientific methods of fanning so as to increase on soil fertility and food sustainability.