The Uganda Atlas

Rakai District Local Administration (2007)

Kooki hills in Kacheera sub county, Rakai District

Rakai has over 20,000 head of cattle. During the periods of drought and pasture and water deficits, about 70,000 more heads of cattle come from other areas in search of pasture and water leading to a swelling cattle population of over 90,000 which, in turn, put tremendous pressure on land, exacerbating the problem of overgrazing. A combination of low soil fertility and poor structure, steep slopes, low available plant moisture, as well as poor grazing and crop growing practices, is thought to be the main cause of extensive occurrence of patches of bare ground on the Kooki hills. The rate of expansion of these bare patches is reported to have recently increased dramatically, which indicates rapid environmental change in the area. Consequences of this process are far reaching, especially with regard to reduction of grazing land, increased runoff and erosion and, increased sedimentation problems in the valleys below and in water systems. With increased degradation to bare ground in upland areas, people are turning to the valley bottoms and dry plains, wetlands, river banks, and fragile ecosystems for both crop cultivation and grazing, leading to yet new threats of degradation and environmental change.

of deeply weathered regolith, on mudstones and shale rocks. Ferralic Acrisols (well drained) occur on the upland pediment slopes and support moderate crop production, while at the footslopes and valley bottoms, halpic luvisols are a common feature. In the valley bottoms and river valleys, a variation of deposition related soils occur, both arenosols and luvisols (for example, Ferralic arenosols, Halpic arenosols, Halpic gleysols and Arenic gleysols). Most of these soils are of medium productivity and tend to be of higher moisture content during the dry season. Kooki hills are located in the relatively dry zone of Uganda (the cattle corridor) with climatic conditions classified as dry sub-humid to semi-arid. Rainfall records at Kibanda indicate that the area receives about 880 mm annually (Climatology Statistics for East Africa Part II - Uganda; East Africa Meteorological Department, Nairobi 1975). Occasionally, the area experiences periods of prolonged droughts which sometimes lead to severe moisture deficit. During this dry season, extensive and uncontrolled bush burning, a traditional practice mainly used as a means of land clearing for agriculture and for rejuvenation of young and tender grasses for livestock grazing.

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