Locals protest Lango Cooperative Union land lease to German investor

Residents of Angayiki Village in Chawente Sub County in Kwania district, numbering 130 are protesting the lease of 1,165 hectares of land by Lango Cooperative Union to Smaz Group, a German investor.

theCooperator recently reported about the lease agreement between LCU and the German investor.

In a letter dated 8th of January, 2021, and addressed to LCU Chairman, Maxwell Akora, Okwir, and Company Advocates, acting on behalf of Among Agnes and 130 others, protested the proposed giveaway, saying the land in question does not belong to the Union.

Contested ownership

Ownership of the land in question has been in contention for more than a decade now.

In 2011, Lango Cooperative Union took the 131 residents of Angayiki to court, accusing them of encroaching its land at Angayiki which measures 1, 165 hectares, a matter still pending before Lira High Court Magistrate, Jeneva Natukunda.

Daniel Odongo of Okwir and Company Advocates says the resolution made by Lango Cooperative Union on the 26th of June, 2020, to lease the land to the investor was in disregard of the ongoing court process. The case is next due for hearing on the 2nd of March, 2021.

“The leadership of the Union should first remain patient. Why are they leasing out the land, yet the matter is still pending in court? Let court handle the matter,” Odongo said.

Moris Obua, one of the defendants and a resident of Angayiki, claims that the land in question is customary land.

“That land does not belong to the Lango Cooperative Union; that land belongs to us. It is customary land that we inherited from our forefathers; that is why we are still pursuing the case up to now, waiting for the court pronouncement,” he said.

In the protest letter seen by our reporter, Odongo accuses Akora and others of committing illegality and causing the suffering of over 300 people of Angayiki. He gave Lango Cooperative Union 14 days to revert to them in case it is no longer interested in the matter that it took to court.

However, Maxwell Akora, the Chairman Board of Directors of Lango Cooperative Union and also the Maruzi County Member of Parliament, told theCooperator that the land in question is already vacant because the said locals had already been evicted from it.

As a result, he said, said the Union may consider withdrawing the court case and proceed with the leasing process.

“Yes, we earlier ran to court but the Microfinance Support Center evicted the locals, so we are now thinking of removing the case from court and going on with leasing out the land to an investor,” he said in an interview.

Members of the community say they suffered a loss in 2016 when the Microfinance Support Center destroyed their houses and properties to attach the land over a Shs 2bn debt owed to it by Lango Cooperative Union. However, an injunction was later ordered against the eviction exercise.

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Excess rain blamed for low cotton production in Kasese

Cooperatives and farmers dealing in cotton in Kasese district have decried the lower than expected production of the cash crop as a result of unusually high rainfall experienced last season.

Cotton farmers who spoke to theCooperator said the excessive rain led to a delay in the cotton harvest in Kasese, thereby negatively affecting the quality of the crop and ultimately resulted in reduced prices.

According to Adrian Katwetegeke, the in-charge of the Uganda Cotton Development Authority at Nyakatonzi Cooperative Union in Kasese, over the last two seasons the price of cotton has dropped from between Shs. 30,000 – 35,000 a barrel to Shs 20,000 currently due climatic conditions.

“Cotton is one of the crops that require a little rain, but for the last two years, Kasese and Uganda, in general, have been experiencing too much rain, leading to low production,” Katwetegeke noted.

Moreover, he added, the overabundant rainfall affects farmers’ ability to spray their crop on time.

“Spraying must be done on time in order to have the desired effect. Our farmers often wait to be told that their gardens are due for spraying, especially when it is raining a lot. By the time they are ready to do it, it is too late for them to save the gardens.”

Enock Nyabwangu, a farmer revealed that cotton needs a moderate amount of water for optimal growth. He says a good cotton plant should produce twenty or more flowers per season.

“However, this season, each plant has only 10-15 flowers. This means that the profit will be less than what we used to get due to climatic conditions ‘, Nyabwangu said.

Nyabwangu and Elias Muhingo, another farmer, advocated for the establishment of irrigation schemes in order to increase cotton production in Kasese and Rubirizi districts.

“Irrigation would help farmers plant cotton during the dry season and reduce the dependence on nature,” the duo said.

Kasese district established a mini irrigation scheme in Katholu in order to help cotton farmers produce even during the dry season, but a lot more needs to be done to maximize its benefit to the farmers, according to the district Chairperson Geoffrey Sibendire.

Cotton growing tips

Lilian Kiiza, a Cotton Extension Officer in Kasese, revealed the principles that farmers need to follow if they are to maximize benefits from growing cotton.

“They need to follow five principles,” she stressed. “Ensure early land preparation, then plant, thin, weed, and spray it on time.”

Kiiza also advised farmers to engage extension workers for advisory services, including getting guidance on the correct pesticides and other inputs to use.

“The challenge is that farmers buy pesticides from shops without any advisory services on how and when to apply them, which ends up affecting their crop. They should make use of available extension services for better yields,” she said.

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Agoro Cooperative members decry delayed repair of Irrigation scheme

Members of the Agoro Self-Help Irrigation Cooperative Society have denounced the delayed rehabilitation of the Agoro Irrigation Scheme in Lawmo district, saying the delay has robbed them of the livelihood they earned from growing rice.

The 187 members of the cooperative used to depend on rice growing as their main source of earning. But last year a team from the Ministry of Water and Environment stopped rice growers from using the irrigation scheme until it has been rehabilitated.

The Scheme was last rehabilitated between 2012-2013 to a tune of Shs 27bn, but a few years after, the water pipes got damaged and parts of the canal silted.

In 2019, the government, through the Ministry of Water and Environment said it would embark on repairs to the said scheme, with the project expected to cost Shs 6bn, after it was abandoned by many farmers because of its poor state.

In March 2020, officials from the ministry delivered over 1000 water pipes to the site but, farmers say, the pipes have been lying idle at the office premises of Agoro cooperative since then.

Affected livelihoods

Teopista Atim says it has been growing rice since the year 2000. She used the proceeds from rice to buy land, build a house and educate her four children.

She said in the early 2000s, her annual earnings from growing rice ranged from Shs 10-12m from 17 acres.

“At the time, the price of rice per kilogram was still low,” she quips.

However, the last time she planted 10 acres of rice in 2019, she earned Shs 16 million.

With the deterioration of the irrigation scheme, however, her source of income has been adversely affected.

“I used to grow rice which could give me a lot of money. But my production level started going down in 2013 because the irrigation scheme was poorly rehabilitated.”

Atim says the irrigation was poorly done, such that the water channels are below the gardens, thus farmers have to set up obstructions by piling sacks of sand to have water flow into their gardens.

“They [Ministry of Water and Environment] promised to start repairing the irrigation scheme in 2020 but they are yet to show up,“ she narrates.

Unable to grow rice, as usual, she tried other crops. It would end in disaster.

“Last year, I planted 10 acres of maize, which was destroyed by floods. I only harvested 3 bags of sorghum, which I used to brew malwa,” Atim said.

Margaret Oryema, another rice farmer, says she started growing rice before the irrigation scheme was rehabilitated, and used the proceeds to pay school fees for her three children up to university level, single-handedly. She also completed constructing a house which her husband started and failed to complete.

Oryema said she used to raise between Shs 7-10m from growing rice on her 8-acre farm before the rehabilitation of the irrigation scheme went awry.

However, last year she did not plant rice and does not expect to earn much this year if repair of the scheme is not expedited.

“Last year we never planted rice. And we are not sure of this year because work on the irrigation scheme has not even started. I no longer have money in my account because rice was my main source of income,” Oryema said.

Denis Ocan, another member of the cooperative, expressed disappointment with the fact that the affected farmers have received no update on the start date of the planned repairs despite a delay of almost a year so far.

No funds

Brenda Akao, the Communications Officer in the Ministry of Water and Environment in Northern Uganda, admitted that the ministry had delivered pipes for rehabilitating the irrigation scheme, but they are awaiting some funds before the repair works can start.

“Yes, I can confirm that we delivered pipes there. But we are now waiting for funding. Our commencement of work there will depend on the availability of funds,” Akao said.

The government adopted an irrigation policy in 2018 to improve agricultural production, with one of the implementation strategies being to construct 70,000 small irrigation schemes countrywide- one for each parish.

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Lango Cooperative Union leases 11-square kilometre land to German investor

Leaders of Lango Cooperative Union have leased out a sizeable chunk of its land assets to Smax-Group, a German investor, in a five-year deal that will see the investors develop the redundant land.

The land that measures about 1,165 hectares (about 11.65 square kilometers) is located in Angayiki village, Chawente Sub County, Kwania District.

Formed in the 1950s by cotton farmers in the greater Lango sub-region, Lango Cooperative Union lost all its assets in the early 1980s to commercial banks and some unscrupulous individuals.

However, the union later reclaimed its land in Angayiki in the ongoing struggle to repossess its prime assets.

Maxwell Akora, the Lango Cooperative Union Chairperson, who doubles as Maruzi County MP, says the union has leased out the recovered Angayiki land, a move aimed at generating funds for the operationalization of its primary societies.

“The long-term lease of the land will see the investor pay 1.1 million shillings per acre to the union. I believe this will secure the land from encroachers and bring benefits to all our primary cooperatives,” he said in an interview.

“The land has not been sold, but leased out for a period of five years, to raise money to help the 144 primary societies under Lango Cooperative Union, “Akora said. He said the move will generate Shs 1.3 bn in seed capital for farmers, to be recycled every season to run the union’s activities.

He noted that while the union had received Shs 2 bn from the government out of the Shs 17 bn owed to it in compensation for losses made during the 1981-1986 guerrilla war that brought the NRM/A into power, that money alone is not sufficient to run the union’s activities.

According to Akora, the German Investor will develop infrastructure, set up irrigation systems, process and distribute quality seeds to farmers and later buy from them at good prices for export.

“After the lease period elapses, the assets built by the investor will remain in the possession of the Union,” he said.

The Union Chairperson further revealed that according to an MoU signed with the union, the German investor will build a technical school for training farmers, and 15% of profit gained by the investor will be shared by Lango Cooperative Union.

“They have already surveyed the land; they will rent the land for growing soya beans and cereals like maize, beans and support farmers in all the 144 primary societies.”

Tom Neo, one of the prominent farmers in the district and a member of Alira Primary Society commented, “The Union leadership needs to be transparent and accountable. Leasing out the land to an investor is a good move only if they can be transparent about it to members.”

Another farmer, Brenda Akidi of Aninolal Primary Cooperative Society, welcomed with excitement the move to lease out the land to an investor, saying it will not only save the land from encroachers but also provide jobs to farmers.

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