By Alfred Opio
Pallisa District has commenced a major land restoration initiative under the Uganda Climate Smart Agricultural Transformation Project (UCSATP), as authorities intensify efforts to rehabilitate degraded ecosystems and boost agricultural productivity across the district.
The district is the latest in the Bukedi sub-region to undergo Sustainable Land Management (SLM) ground truthing — a process that verifies satellite-based assessments of land degradation through physical inspections on the ground.
John Robert Opus, from the Monitoring and Evaluation Unit of UCSATP, said Pallisa is the final district in the sub-region to benefit from the assessment exercise.
“Land degradation refers to the persistent decline in biological and economic productivity of land due to human activities and natural processes,” Opus explained. “It is largely driven by deforestation, overgrazing, poor farming practices and rapid settlement, which affect food security, water systems and livelihoods.”
The project is being implemented in five districts across Bukedi — Pallisa, Butaleja, Budaka, Kibuku and Tororo — with the sub-region allocated 4,156 hectares out of the national target of restoring 153,000 hectares in 69 districts.
Of this allocation, Pallisa has been earmarked for the restoration of 1,058 hectares.
“Compared to other districts, Pallisa is not the most severely degraded, but there are still significant areas that require urgent intervention,” Opus said.
He noted that the ground truthing exercise is helping teams identify the specific causes of degradation and recommend appropriate solutions tailored to each locality.
The project will adopt two key restoration approaches — on-farm and communal land rehabilitation.
On-farm restoration will focus on improving soil fertility in individual gardens through sustainable practices such as soil conservation, fertilizer application and agroforestry. Meanwhile, communal restoration will target shared resources including grazing lands, wetlands and forests to strengthen environmental resilience and productivity.
“We are not worried about land fragmentation,” Opus emphasized. “Even small plots must remain productive. Our concern is restoring soil health so farmers can harvest more.”
Farmers will be encouraged to adopt technologies such as tree planting, pasture management and integrating perennial crops like mangoes with annual food crops to improve soil structure and fertility.
Beyond environmental recovery, the project aims to increase productivity by 40 percent in key value chains including mangoes, citrus, avocado, dairy farming, black soldier fly rearing, apiculture and aquaculture.
“We cannot achieve higher productivity if the land itself is exhausted. Restoring soil fertility is the foundation for economic transformation,” Opus added.
Following consultations at the district headquarters, the project team resolved to conduct field engagements in Nyakoi Parish in Kameke Sub-county, identified among the most degraded areas.
Satellite imagery from 2021 indicates that Gogonyo Sub-county has extensive degradation due to its large land coverage, while Kameke and Agule sub-counties show visible bare land with minimal vegetation.
District leaders have welcomed the intervention, expressing optimism about its impact on agriculture and livelihoods.
LC5 Chairperson Patrick Duchu said the initiative would help revive farming in the district.
“Agriculture in Pallisa had declined, but with this project we expect transformation. Farmers will begin to realize better yields like before,” Duchu said.
Chief Administrative Officer Felix Alex Majeme called for stronger sensitization campaigns and enforcement measures to prevent further environmental damage.
“Land degradation affects both people and ecosystems. Leaders must intensify awareness and, where necessary, enforce regulations to protect our environment,” Majeme noted.
The UCSATP team is expected to continue engaging communities in identified hotspots before finalizing restoration plans tailored to Pallisa’s needs.
