Assessing the impacts of agricultural practices on the conservation of water bodies :

Abstract

The study examined the impacts of agricultural practices the conservation of water bodies focusing on Lake Kwania as the case study. Lake Kwania is part of a large wetland along the White Nile (Victoria Nile) between Lake Victoria and Lake Albert, consists of about 3,420 square kilometres (1,320 sq. m) of open water and about 2,180 square kilometres (840 sq. mi) of permanent swamps. Of this total, Lake Kwania accounts for 540 square kilometres (210 sq. mi), about 16 percent, of the open water. The overall objective of the study was to assess the impacts of agricultural practices on the conservation of water bodies. The study used both qualitative and quantitative approaches to collect data, analyze and present it. The methods of data collection used were interviews, questionnaires and field observations. The data was collected from a sample of sixty respondents include males and female, the young ones, the youth and the old ones, the data was analyzed using excel and SPSS, which facilitated the formation of pie charts, bar charts and a Pearson chi square was used to analyze the relationships between different variables, The study found that agricultural activities of growing crops (mostly cereals, tubers, vegetables and legumes) and rearing animals (cattle, goats, pigs and sheep) around the lake has serious polluting, bank breaking and other impacts on the lake. The use of tractors and ox-plough greatly contribute to cutting don of trees which disrupts the hydrological cycle consequently leading to varying water tables and quality. However, the study found that most farmers in the area do not use inorganic chemicals like fertilizers, pesticides and insecticides, thus contributing insignificantly to the pollution. The study also found out that. there are stakeholders like NGOs, District, Local and others who are carrying out activities in the area to sensitize and monitor with enforcement of policies and laws about water resource management. Therefore, there is need for government, NGOs, communities around the lake, and any other interest group to seat on around table and discuss measures to address and combat the increasing encroachment on the wetlands around the lakes of Uganda through policies, laws, institutional capacity strengthening, improve agricultural. extension services to farmers including better agricultural methods, crop. varieties; and other measures to ensure agricultural impacts on water bodies are mitigated.