A Secret Goldmine!

Kayunga district could best be described as the shrubby virgin of Uganda. For a moment as you traverse through this land, you get the feeling it's located at the end of the earth, yet it's actually in central Uganda.

Covered with shrubs and all kinds of trees, Kayunga is so green and flat that you walk miles upon miles without seeing a hill or even valley. Most of her people live in the villages and depending largely on cattle rearing and subsistence farming for their livelihood.

In fact, agriculture provides about 90 percent of the total employment to the people of Kayunga with two types of agriculture i.e. animal husbandry or livestock farming and crop husbandry practiced there.

And because of the good climate and fertile soils, and a vast land, Kayunga district is the leading producer of high quality vanilla in Uganda although about 88 percent of the population is engaged in production of cassava, matooke (plantains), pineapples, maize, millet, watermelon, potatoes and passion fruits.

Beyond this, the people of Bbaale, Galilaya and the neighbourhood, do fishing at Bangala landing site on Lake Kyoga; in fact, fishing especially of tilapia and mudfish, is the now one of the chief economic activities of the people of Kayunga. The many colourful, light boats on Lake Kyoga are testimony to this.

The fish is exported in containers to Kenya, Rwanda the Democratic Republic of Congo. And of course, as we all know the importance of fish especially how throughout the world fish protein has been a great source of good health to global people, the people of Kayunga retain some for their own consumption.

But like on other lakes, there is fear that the different species of fish on Lake Kyoga may dwindle to a mere trickle because of fishing with primitive traditional gears like oversized nets and catching young fish. And of course because of the poor road network, some fish get spoilt before they reach the market and it's the fishermen that lose out.

According to Mr. Ozombo Patrick who is one of the administrators at Bangala landing site, the roads will soon be worked on and fishermen are consistently monitored to ensure that they don't use wrong nets.

With large scale farming supplemented with fishing, the future of the people of Kayunga is certainly bright. Potential investors would certainly find this virgin and highly fertile flatland a goldmine!