Private Story
James Wasswa
Born in Buwaate, Sekitende has grown up watching his once green, serene and quiet little village change. Once brimming with wildlife and birds, Buwaate has abruptly undergone a real estate boom. This change has affected the only way of life he and several generations of his family have known - animal farming. He has been a farmer for the last 45 years, and his land, once a lush abundance of pasture with cows roaming several acres to feed, has now been reduced to barely an arm’s stretch. Urbanisation and climate change have radically altered his way of life.
“The climate has changed for the worse from what I used to know”, says Sekitende. The uncertainty of the rainy seasons and the low volumes of rain received, coupled with an explosion of the urban population, has led to a scarcity of the grass needed to feed his animals. The replacement of once-lush green fields with concrete estates in parallel to worsening weather conditions has created massive problems for Sekitende. To cope, he has resorted to labour-intensive, zero-grazing practices. Difficulties in housing animals, hygiene challenges and limited, poor-quality grass have forced Sekitende to choose between entering dangerous, fast-flowing wastewater channels in search of feed, or buying grass at high prices. The animals get less to eat and what they get is poor quality. The result of this is weight loss for the animal and less milk being produced, meaning that Sekitende has less to sell to his customers.
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