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Industrial plantations: stop endangering local farmers, Indigenous knowledge, and food system models – land-grab victims

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2 years ago

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By Witness Radio Team.

Emotions, tears, and testimonies exposing the dark side of industrial agriculture rocked activities to mark the International Day of Struggle against industrial plantations 2024 celebrations in Uganda.

The day, celebrated in Uganda for the first time, began with a live radio talk show on Witness Radio, broadcast in the local dialect. Leaders of communities affected by industrial plantations in Uganda, under their umbrella organization—the Informal Alliance for Communities Affected by Irresponsible Land-Based Investments—shared harrowing accounts of forced evictions, lack of compensation, and broken promises by industrial plantation investors, all of which have escalated poverty and worsened the hunger crisis.

The Ugandan Alliance united with global informal alliances to collectively resist the rapid expansion of industrial plantations. Together, they resist increasing irresponsible land-based investments, threatening local communities’ human rights and destroying the environment. The day is commemorated every September 21st of the year.

Ugandan smallholder farmers are hugely under attack as their lands are being grabbed for large-scale industrial plantations despite being among the world’s largest food producers.

The 2021 report by the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), titled “Which farms feed the world and has farmland become more concentrated?”, revealed that small-scale farmers produce up to 70%- 80% of the world’s food and contribute nearly a third of the global food supply.

During the one-hour radio program, the Alliance leaders representing Kiryandongo communities revealed that investors illegally evicted them to make way for coffee, maize, soya, and sugar cane plantations; Kalangala communities are victims of palm oil plantations; and Mubende communities are victims of carbon offset tree plantations, among other communities. They revealed that their communities were dumped in abject poverty while the industrial plantations made huge profits after forceful evictions.

“Millions of Ugandans have been brutally evicted for profit. They have not been compensated or resettled, and what is replacing their lands are plantations that serve no purpose to the common person since most the crops in the plantations serve an international market.” Akiteng Stella, the Informal Alliance Chairperson, was evicted from her land in Kiryandongo to make way for sugarcane plantations.

Akiteng added that people who once grew their food crops on fertile lands have been reduced to paupers in their own countries, as they no longer have land to farm.

“Ideally, there are many challenges facing these communities, and now their only means of survival is working on the investors’ plantations. So, you wonder how a former landlord earning millions of Uganda shillings each season from their land can be reduced to a casual laborer to earn a monthly salary of nearly 200,000/: Uganda shillings? Is that true development or simply profiting off our land and workforce?”

Currently, big corporations are promoting large-scale industrial agriculture, backed by significant funding from entities like the World Bank, claiming it’s the way to go for food security and climate protection.

While doing so, they have received criticism that their businesses are doing the opposite. Recently, African faith leaders, alongside hundreds of civil society and farmer groups, revealed that industrialized plantations had done more harm than good, increasing poverty, exacerbating food insecurity, eroding local seed varieties, and degrading the environment across Africa. The faith leaders said that the promoted initiatives have increased dependence on expensive farm inputs, eroded local seed varieties, degraded soil fertility, and weakened farmers’ resilience to climate shocks like drought.

However, the expansion of industrial plantations serves only the interests of investors and governments, as many of these ventures are backed by influential government figures. For example, the so-called development that the New Forests Company claimed to have brought to the community in Mubende District can only be applauded by those who choose to disregard the realities on the ground.

Being evicted from fertile lands without compensation and abandoned in the wilderness feels incomprehensible to someone accustomed to actively farming their land and relying on agriculture for daily survival. According to its Senior Corporate Social Responsibility Programme Manager, Mr. Alex Kyabawampi, the company fully compensated the affected residents.

However, the leaders of the affected residents questioned what the company called compensation. Saying that even those who were allegedly compensated received land that was practically worthless, hilly and rocky terrain that yielded nothing, and to make matters worse, the residents were reportedly instructed to use the same land to plant more trees for the company.

“People are starving day and night. They resettled to a terrible place, and nothing could grow on it. Moreover, the land allocation was not done fairly—you find older adults being given land on top of a hill. How are they expected to reach it? People should come to the ground to witness our suffering,” Julius Ndagize revealed angrily during the radio program, adding that people are dying helplessly with nowhere to bury their dead, children are becoming malnourished, and families are being torn apart.

In the 2023 Global Hunger Index, Uganda ranked 95th out of 125 countries with a score of 25.2, highlighting the severity of the problem. Alliance leaders argue that this is the result of industrial farms. “Take, for instance, Kiryandongo, where over 35,000 people were illegally evicted to make way for industrial plantations. They could have contributed to food production if these individuals had been meaningfully engaged and empowered on their land,” Beryaija Benon, chairman of the Kiryandongo affected communities, wondered.

According to the World Bank’s compensation and resettlement guidelines, a person evicted from their land is entitled to a range of measures comprising compensation, income restoration support, transfer assistance, income restoration, and relocation support, which are due to affected people, depending on the nature of their losses, to restore their economic and social base.

Not only are people suffering, but the environment is also being harmed. For instance, Julius Ndagize, the leader of communities affected by New Forest Company evictions in Mubende, explained how the replacement of Indigenous trees with eucalyptus and pines has destroyed the environment. The loss of natural trees, critical for rainfall, has extended the dry season, delaying farming seasons and worsening food shortages.

“When these companies arrive, they destroy the environment. They cut down our indigenous trees, which contribute to rainfall formation, and replace them with trees that don’t support it. In Mubende, by July, we should be planting maize, Irish potatoes, and other crops, but nowadays, we can go as late as September without rain. In Kalangala, they planted palm oil trees near Lake Victoria, and these trees are sprayed with chemicals, including fertilizers. When it rains, runoff from the plantations flows into the lake, causing severe consequences for the lake and the people who depend on it,” said Julius.

Despite the hardships, the Informal Alliance continues to fight for the rights of affected communities. Their movement spans Uganda, mobilizing, sensitizing, and equipping communities with the knowledge to resist industrial plantation land grabs.

“We are reaching every corner of Uganda to mobilize and sensitize communities, broadening the fight against these land grabs. You have heard the stories of people suffering, and many more continue to face the same fate as a result of their expansion. We are urging communities to resist these land grabs,” revealed Nakato Priscilla, the Alliance’s vice chairperson.

She added, “As an alliance, they regularly hold meetings to evaluate their progress, educate people about their land rights, and assist in following up on cases, such as arrests by the police and in courts of law, to ensure that the law addresses the issues raised.”

Further, the Alliance emphasized that their movement is not against development or investors but insists that land acquisitions follow proper procedures. “We want investors to seek consent from communities, pay fairly for the land they take, and offer meaningful resettlement,” said Benon Beryaija, a member of the Alliance.

The Alliance urges the Ugandan government to compensate affected communities and that future investors use unoccupied land to avoid further displacements.

 

Related posts:

Victims of Industrial plantation: Some of the evictees who were pushed in a state of severe despairs at their new homes.
Uganda: Land-grab victim communities will join counterparts in commemorating the 2024 International Day of Struggle Against Industrial Plantations. Uganda: Resisting Industrial Oil Palm Plantations Sexual violence as a tool to grab land: a local woman accuses industrial agriculture investor Agilis Partners Limited of sexual violence. Thirty-six (36) groups from all over the world have written to industrial agriculture investors, Agilis Partners Limited to stop human rights violations/abuses against thousands of indigenous/local communities, settle grievances, and return the grabbed land. African Food Systems Summit 2024: Do not use it to promote failed agricultural models – African Faith Leaders.

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Govt targets land grabbers with first national public-land register

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2 days ago

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August 14, 2026

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Officials say a nationwide inventory will finally let the state prove what it owns — from school compounds to road reserves — but the exercise is beginning on a shoestring.

Mukono, Uganda — Uganda has begun building its first comprehensive national register of government land, an undertaking officials say is aimed squarely at land grabbers who for years have carved up public property the state often cannot prove it owns.

The five-year exercise, the Comprehensive Government Land Inventory, will document every identifiable state plot — schools, hospitals, police stations, road reserves, wetlands and forests among them — and record who owns each, how it is used and whether it is under threat.

“If we don’t do that, then we may never have land to protect,” Lands Minister Judith Nabakooba told a regional workshop at Rider Hotel in Mukono, east of the capital Kampala, on Thursday.

The vulnerability is considerable. Government land makes up about 23 percent of Uganda’s territory, but only roughly a quarter of it has been formally titled, according to the Uganda Land Commission — leaving the majority undocumented and, officials concede, easy to grab.

Nabakooba said Uganda’s rapid transformation was making the problem worse. Towns are spreading, infrastructure and industry are expanding, and land that was rural only a few years ago is now valuable real estate. She warned that population growth — which she said could push Uganda towards 70 million people by 2050 — would only sharpen the competition for a fixed supply of land.

The minister urged local authorities to enforce physical development plans and to build upwards rather than outwards. “Can we now begin thinking of going vertical when you are building offices and spaces for accommodation… then the rest of the land is used for agricultural purposes?” she asked. She singled out Wakiso district, on Kampala’s fringes, where development pressure is most intense, and cautioned officials against surrendering government plots simply because they appeared vacant.

Local knowledge, national record

The Mukono meeting, billed as the “Buganda 1” engagement and the second after the programme’s national launch in July, gathered district chairpersons, resident district commissioners, land board members and civil society from central-region districts including Wakiso, Mukono, Buikwe, Kayunga, Luweero, Nakasongola and Buvuma.

Uganda Land Commission chairperson Prof Pen Mogi Nyeko told them their local knowledge was central to the exercise. “You all virtually know what land belongs to government,” he said, appealing to them to help identify and title state plots — and warning land boards not to hand public land to individuals.

He said the state was the country’s biggest developer, and that consolidated, protected land could anchor major projects. Nyeko pointed to the Amuru sugar scheme in northern Uganda, where the government compensated landowners across some 10,000 hectares for a plantation and factory, as an example of what public land could enable, describing the local opposition it once faced as “negative politics”. The project in fact has a long and contested history, resisted for years by Acholi communities and their leaders and fought through the courts over customary ownership before compensation was settled.

Nyeko also raised the grabbing of institutional land, including plots belonging to church-founded schools. “Many of you were students in these lands, in these schools. So it is you to help us get those lands protected,” he said. He stressed the commission was not after private property: “The constitution is very clear: land belongs to the people. For us, we are only interested in land which belongs to government.” A reliable inventory, he added, would let the state direct investors to suitable sites — “if we know that there is 2, 3 square miles of land belonging to government in Nakasongola… we recommend that area for industrialisation.”

A reform on a tight budget

For all its ambition, the programme is starting with little money. The commission has said it was costed at about 100 billion shillings (roughly $27m), but only 6 billion shillings was released this financial year, even after a parliamentary committee recommended more. Implementation will be phased, beginning with cities and municipalities where land values — and the incentive to grab — are highest.

Emmanuel Kaganzi, representing the ministry’s permanent secretary, said the register had to capture more than ownership. It should show whether each parcel was surveyed, titled and free of encroachment or competing claims, he said, giving government the chance “to intervene early” rather than react to disputes after the fact.

But a register was only as good as its upkeep, he cautioned. “A government land inventory completed today but not updated tomorrow will gradually lose its usefulness.” He said responsibility for keeping records current would fall across the commission, the ministry, local governments and the agencies that occupy state land, and pressed repeatedly for coordination between them. The inventory, he added, should build on systems already in place — the Uganda Land Information System, the National Land Information Centre and the ministry’s zonal offices, which have moved land services closer to citizens — rather than create new silos.

Kaganzi was blunt about the human element. “An accurate system will achieve little if public officers knowingly allow government land to be encroached, to be taken, to be grabbed, and irregularly allocated,” he said, adding that officials entrusted with public land must treat it as belonging to the people of Uganda.

Cross-checking a fragmented record

The commission’s secretary, Andrew Nyumba, said the state’s own records were part of the problem, scattered across the commission, ministries, local governments and district land boards and never fully reconciled. The existing records, he said, did not amount to a comprehensive picture of government land.

For each holding, he said, the inventory should answer a set of basic questions — what the parcel is, where it lies, its size and boundaries, the evidence of state ownership, which institution is responsible, how it is used, whether it is documented and whether it is occupied, encroached upon or disputed. The commission would draw on registry and cadastral data, ministry and local-government records, survey and planning information, asset registers, historical archives, community knowledge and, where needed, physical checks on the ground.

Those sources would be cross-checked against one another, and disagreements, Nyumba argued, were useful rather than a setback. “A discrepancy in information is not necessarily a failure of the exercise. It is also information,” he said, describing conflicting records as a signal of where further verification was required. The goal, he said, was to move “from fragmented information toward a more reliable, integrated and continuously maintained picture of government land in Uganda”.

The drive follows years of criticism over the commission’s record-keeping. The Auditor General has previously flagged the absence of a comprehensive government land database, and the body has been drawn into numerous court cases over contested public plots — the very gaps the inventory is meant to close.

Source: www.ugstandard.com/

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Why govt is launching a comprehensive digital land registry Government urges Ugandans to register their land interests to reduce land evictions. Govt moves to register surveyors to curb land conflicts Land commission starts updating govt land countrywide. Kasese district land bosses ordered to cancel land titles of gov’t land grabbers
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Experts rally the region to unite behind East Africa’s transformative Agroecology Bill.

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4 days ago

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August 12, 2026

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By the Witness Radio team.

Across East Africa, experts and agricultural advocates are urging a united front for the proposed East African Community (EAC) Agroecology Bill, believing its passage could revolutionize food systems, empower food sovereignty, and uplift millions of farmers’ lives.

In mid-April 2026, the East African Legislative Assembly (EALA) officially began the legislative process for the EAC Agroecology Bill, 2026, after the Agriculture, Tourism and Natural Resources Committee chairperson, Hon. Gideon Gaptan Thoar, received parliamentary leave to draft and introduce it. The drafting committee is now in the final stages of tabling the bill before parliament.

This rallying cry echoed through an online webinar hosted by the Center for Food and Adequate Living Rights and broadcast live on Witness Radio. The event gathered agricultural experts, food sovereignty champions, and regional legislators to explore the bill’s promise and the hurdles it may face.

If passed, it would lay the foundation for a unified regional legal framework championing agroecological farming throughout the East African Community. Supporters believe this could be a powerful tool to combat food insecurity, protect farmers’ rights and indigenous seeds, address climate change and biodiversity loss, and tackle challenges faced by smallholder farmers.

Mr. Andrew Adem, Program Coordinator for Food Systems at the Alliance for Food Sovereignty in Africa (AFSA), said the region must learn from the shortcomings of the Green Revolution model, which prioritized increased yields and external agricultural inputs.

He pointed out that although the model aimed to boost yields and farmers’ incomes, it left them vulnerable when harvests fell short.

Adem noted that in tough seasons, farmers often bear the high costs of expensive inputs, while intensive farming erodes agricultural diversity and time-honored knowledge.

To address these challenges, he said, agroecology flips the script by putting farmers and their wisdom at the heart of agricultural progress.

“In Africa, food is more important than yields because it carries a lot of things. Therefore, the Green Revolution failed, and hence the Agroecology Bill presents an opportunity for us to stand up and protect the sovereignty of food in Africa,” Adem said during the Webinar meeting.

He explained that agroecology inspires farmers to break free from expensive external inputs, nurture healthier soils, diversify their crops, and tap into the wealth of local knowledge and resources.

Unlike systems fixated on monocultures and quotas, advocates say agroecology embraces nutrition, culture, biodiversity, and the enduring wellbeing of farming communities.

This legislative push arrives as hunger casts a long shadow over Africa. Jean Leonard from the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) highlighted that the continent bears the World’s largest hungry population, with around 309 million people affected.

He described agroecology as a holistic approach, weaving together ecological and social principles to shape and guide agricultural systems.

“Agroecology seeks to optimize interaction between people, markets, agriculture and ecosystems while addressing environmental, social and economic systems simultaneously rather than focusing on single technologies,” Leonard said.

Leonard outlined key ingredients for the success of the Bill: dedicated lawmakers, appropriate budgets, robust funding, supportive laws, and genuine involvement from farmers. She urged greater investment in youth, believing that empowering young people with resources and opportunities could open fresh paths into agriculture and speed the shift to agroecological farming.

Hon. Jackline Amongin, a Ugandan member of the East African Legislative Assembly (EALA), said the proposed legislation is intended to create a common framework for agroecological farming across the EAC.

She emphasized that the East African Community’s unique character calls for unity, not fragmented efforts, in transforming agriculture.

“We shall have the best, but all efforts must be put on enacting the Bill into law. Once the law is put in place, all the desired issues of implementation and execution will be agreed on. Other factors will follow,” she added.

Advocates stress that agroecology is more than a farming method. They see it as a philosophy that links agriculture to environmental care, social justice, cultural heritage, nutrition, and economic vitality.

This approach inspires farmers to exchange wisdom, broaden their crops, and craft solutions tailored to their unique landscapes.

According to the Bill memorandum, the purpose of the EAC Agroecology Bill, 2026, is to mainstream agroecological farming by promoting agroecology principles across agri-food systems. It seeks to integrate ecological, social and participatory approaches while combining scientific and traditional knowledge to enhance biodiversity, ecosystem services, resilience, livelihoods and food sovereignty.

“The Bill will therefore be tabled and gazetted before being subjected to public consultations, hearings and participation by members of the public. It will then proceed to a second reading before being referred to the whole House Committee for detailed consideration. Once all these processes are duly followed, the Bill will be presented for a third reading and passage by EALA. It will then go through the EAC process before ultimately becoming an Act.” She concluded.

Related posts:

East African lawmakers and CSO leaders are meeting in Uganda to draw up plans to promote Agroecology as an alternative to climate change mitigation. Agroecological farming: EAC Bill moves to Parliament to establish a regional legal framework to protect and promote sustainable farming and food systems. EALA members renew push for unified sub-regional Agroecology Law during Mukono meeting. The Indigenous Seeds movement in East Africa is convening in Kenya, with the potential to reshape the region’s food systems. The EAC Seed & Plant Varieties Bill, 2025, is a potential threat to smallholder farmers, as it aims to disengage them from the agriculture business, according to experts.
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Four youth activists now face public nuisance charges after their arrest during a bold march toward Parliament.

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6 days ago

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August 11, 2026

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By the Witness Radio team.

At Buganda Road court, four youth activists from the Rooted in Resistance Movement were charged with public nuisance after their arrest during a passionate plea to Parliament for an oil-free Uganda.

Activists Ssembalirwa Aniwally, Mugoya Hassan, Aron Patrick Ariong, and Okanya Ivan were detained by parliamentary police as they marched with determination toward Parliament, urging the Ugandan government to abandon oil dependency in favor of an ‘oil-free economy’ built on economic freedom, sustainability, and citizen involvement.

According to the charge sheet seen by Witness Radio, the prosecution alleges that on August 10, 2026, at about 9:00 am, the four activists, along with others still at large, were at King George Way Street in Kampala Central. They wore orange T-shirts bearing the words “Rooted in Resistance” and carried placards with messages including “Prioritize Other Sectors of the Economy,” “Oil Is Temporary, Nature Is Permanent,” and “Oil Today, Problems Tomorrow.”

Prosecutors claim the activists stood on the road, disrupting traffic and creating hazards.

The activists appeared before Grade One Magistrate Her Worship Rophine Achayo at Buganda Road court yesterday, where they were charged with being a nuisance on the public road, contrary to Section 67(1) of the Road Act, Cap. 346.

Section 160(1) of the Penal Code Act, which defines a common nuisance, provides that any person who does an act not authorized by law or fails to discharge a legal duty and thereby causes “any common injury, or danger or annoyance,” or obstructs or causes inconvenience to the public in the exercise of common rights, commits the misdemeanor of common nuisance and is liable to imprisonment for one year.

The four pleaded not guilty and now await their fate in Luzira Prison, remanded until August 28, 2026.

The group’s mission was to urge Parliament to rethink Uganda’s reliance on petroleum, warning that true prosperity cannot be built on a resource that will one day run out.

The activists contend that despite years of promises—jobs, industry, infrastructure, and poverty relief—oil’s benefits have reached only a privileged few, while many others remain trapped in poverty.

“Our demand for an oil-free economy is not a rejection of development, but a demand for a different development model, one that places Ugandan citizens, productive sectors and sustainable wealth creation at the center of national planning,” the group said.

They call for bold investment in other sectors, insisting Uganda should chart a path toward sustainable wealth, citizen empowerment, and true economic independence instead of clinging to petroleum.

These arrests are part of a troubling pattern as more Ugandans face criminal charges for protesting oil projects or demanding accountability for their social and environmental costs.

12 environmental activists were arrested in Kampala in August 2025 during a protest against the East African Crude Oil Pipeline (EACOP). Eight out of the 12 activists were later convicted and sent to prison to serve an eleven (11) month sentence. They were released from Luzira Prison on April 21, 2026, as time spent on remand had effectively covered their 11-month sentences.

The other four, including Ivan Wamboga, Baker Tamale and Habibu Nalungu, pleaded guilty and were released on November 19, 2025, after being ordered to perform community service. Mark Makoba also pleaded guilty and was released on November 6, 2025, without any additional penalty.

These cases reveal the risks faced by those who challenge Uganda’s oil agenda. Even after release, the activists’ ordeals have intensified fears for freedom of expression and assembly across civil society.

Related posts:

Youth activists detained as they boldly petition Parliament, demanding a future for Uganda free from oil dependency. Ugandan Activists Face Criminal Charges Following Pipeline Protest Breaking: 15 Anti-EACOP Activists have been charged with common nuisance and remanded to Luzira prison. Another group of eleven environmental activists have been charged with common nuisance and remanded to Luzira Prison for opposing the EACOP project. Youth climate activists raise frustration over govt’s silence on EACOP
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