Monday 18 November 2019

Museveni Tips Farmers How To Succeed In The Face Of Climate Change


“Plan for the rains and climate changes, but do not entirely rely on nature in farming,” Museveni tells farmers.

In a Facebook post on last Sunday, the president wrote sharing with farmers his insights on how to succeed in farming in the face of changing climate.

In the post, Museveni articulated that modern farming requires a whole new way of thinking and new sets of tactics for one to thrive.

“Water and pasture can be permanently harnessed and preserved in one place,” Museveni wrote.

He emphasized that farmers need to grow and preserve food for animals just like they do for themselves irrespective of the weather pattern.

According to Museveni, modern agriculture is about seizing and bringing nature under control.

“Modern farming demands that humanity must tame nature and preserve water at all times both for their animals and for irrigation to ensure the growth of pasture and foodstuffs,” the president highlighted.

He added that preserving these will guarantee the feeding of their stock irrespective of the changing climate.

The president's insight comes at a time when heavy down pour is being experienced in most parts of the country. 

According to the information from Rain Water Harvesting Handbook of Uganda's Ministry of Water and Environment, water harvesting is lowly practiced in the country despite the high annual precipitation in most regions.

Rain water harvesting is highly practiced in developed countries like German and Australia.

Different Water Harvesting Technologies in Uganda
Rain Barrels
This is one of the commonest methods in Uganda which involves installing a barrel at a gutter down pour to collect water.

·         Whereas this method is easily implemented because of the availability of barrels and the fact that they don't take up much space, the carrying capacity of barrels are usually very low.

"Dry" System                                                                                                                                 
This is a form of rain barrel set up only differing in the fact that it involves a larger storage volume. In this widely used technology, collection pipe dries after each rain event since it empties directly into top of the tank. This method allows for huge volumes of water to be stored and is thus good for areas where rainfall pattern is unpredictable.
However, the size of your roof being the determining factor for the maximum possible volume of water, it is always hard to fill the tanks which are either plastics or concrete constructions.

"Wet" System
This is spreading technology in Uganda. The method involves locating the collection pipes underground. The tanks are always concrete made constructed underground.
The rain water will fill the underground piping and the water will rise in the vertical pipes until it spills into the tank.
The ability to collect from your entire collection surface and multiple gutters makes this method the choicest. However, the technology is very expensive especially the construction process for underground tanks.

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