The Impact Of Rice Cultivation On The Wetland Ecosystem. A Case Study Of Nalioba Wetland, Banda Sub-County, Namayingo District.

ABSTRACT

Rice, which is a new crop in Uganda, was introduced on a large scale in the 1960’s as a wetland

based crop. The continued use of upland fields for farming has also resulted in loss of soil

fertility due to erosion and over use, The rapid population growth and high demand for rice in

Uganda, much pressure has been put on wetlands to increase production which has led to their

degradation. The objectives of the study were to; establish the factors influencing rice cultivation

in in Nalioba wetland, determine the effects of rice cultivation activities to the wetland and

identify the measures put in place to manage the wetland during rice cultivation. Both qualitative

and quantitative designs were used therefore the study was descriptive in nature. A total of 70

respondents were chosen as the sample size. Simple random sampling method was used to get

the 60 respondents and purposive sampling was also used to get the 10 key informants. The

study concluded that the greatest factors encouraging rice cultivation in Nalioba wetland are

good water supply and the availability of fertile soils while the most common rice cultivation

practice carried out in Nalioba wetland is leveling or puddling. The majority of respondents get

higher yields of rice between 16-25 bags each bag of 6okgs and they sell each kilogram of their

rice at Ugx 2,500&. The most common adverse effect of rice cultivation in Nalioba wetland is

low or decreasing crop yields and sensitization is the greatest approach used to manage Nalioba

wetland. The study recommended that farmers should obtain new planting varieties each season,

introduction of high yielding varieties of other crops, sustainable use of wetlands is through a

better understanding of their traditional uses, restrictions and by-laws must be placed, emphasize

more grass root sensitization, increase proper funding from NEMA in conjunction with MOFPED to aid more research on how to rehabilitate degraded wetlands should be carried out.