Africa-Press – Uganda. Leaders in Kalangala District have dropped an earlier proposal of taxing rice growers in the area after failing to agree with the latter.
Rice growing has in the last five years been a lucrative business in Kalangala which has forced many islanders to clear their bushes to pave way for agriculture.
Currently, over 5,000 households are involved in rice growing and rice fields are mushrooming in islands including; Buyovu, Bufumira Bunyama, and Kaazi, Bukasa, Bubeke.
According to the LCIII chairperson Bufumira Sub County, Mr Robert Munaaba who was one of the pushers of the proposal, said they realized that a good number of rice growers have just joined the business and need time to start paying tax.
“We looked at collecting tax yet farmers needed our input first in terms of advisory services and access to good markets. So, we have since given them more time to reorganize themselves,” he said during an interview on Thursday.
Mr Munaaba said some farmers who own large rice fields could not share information about their businesses which made the collection of tax difficult.
Under the rice tax ordinance, all rice growers owning more than one acre were supposed to pay a tax equivalent to 5 per cent of their harvests to the sub-county every season.
Mr Joseph Mulagwe, a prominent rice grower in Bufumira and Bubembe islands, said leaders should first support them to grow their businesses and later tax them.
“We are currently struggling on our own to grow rice at a relatively commercial scale and there is no support we are getting from our leaders. Since many of our gardens are near the shores of the lake, we risk making losses due to floods and NEMA also keep threatening to evict us,” Mr Mulagwe said
Mr Rajab Ssemakula, the Kalangala District Chairperson said they need to first sit with rice growers before enforcing the proposed tax.
“It is true rice growing has been identified as another source of revenue due to dwindling fish stocks, but we need to first sensitize them before enforcing that tax,” he said.
In addition to fishing and palm oil growing, upland rice growing is the new economic activity being embraced by islanders.
In 2020, the district issued stringent guidelines to farmers planning to grow rice in the area. The authorities also banned the growing of rice within the 200 and 100 meters buffer zone for the lake and wetlands respectively.
Routine growing of rice on the same piece of land and on hilltops within underlying Islands was also outlawed.
This followed wanton destruction of wetlands and forests in the district by farmers who are venturing into rice growing which has of late become a lucrative business in Kalangala and neighbouring Mpigi District.
Several forests in the district have been replaced with palm oil plantations, rice gardens while several businessmen have invested in illegal timber cutting.
Out of the 31 forest reserves in the area, 17 of them have been depleted. However, the district has embarked on distributing free tree seedlings to residents to restore the depleted natural forest cover.
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