By Our reporter
A report released by the Uganda bureau of statistics indicates an increase in animal husbandry and this has seen the country register 12 million heads of cattle and over 35 million chicken.
The report findings further indicate that most Ugandans are into animal rearing and poultry keeping and this can be witnessed with atleast each home having seven heads of cattle and 10 chicken when you compare to the number of households in the country.
The report dubbed, annual Agriculture survey 2018 has data collected since 2008 till 2018 with the last publication was in 2008.
The report further indicates that heads of cattle have increased by 6.2%, the increase in goats is by 19% with a population of 15 million from 12 million, sheep now at 37% and totaling to five million, rabbits totaling to 630,000, pigs totaling to five million away from two million (37%)
The report further indicates that Camels and donkeys combined total upto over 140,000.
The lead researcher, Nakiyemba Constance reveals that, animal husbandry in Uganda is very common in the district of Mbarara.
She further notes that though there is an increase in the number of cattle, homesteads involved in the activity are slowly reducing.
The researcher attribute the increment in animal and poultry farming to the increased market demand of products from these animals and birds and this has further improved people’s incomes and livelihoods.
Uganda now has modern and traditional slaughtering center which are for both export and selling on local market.
One of the countries well known to import Ugandan cattle and goats meat is Egypt, countries in the UAE, China for pork and other countries.
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