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It is often claimed that goats are a hazard to the environment. However this is only true where there is overgrazing. Where the main activity is all year round crop growing, the goats are generally kept tethered and do not get the opportunity to damage trees or to overgraze. This applies to much of southern Uganda, and particularly to the areas where we are concentrating our efforts, because these are the very areas where there is a shortage of milk and the dairy goats are most needed.
The hills of southern Uganda are some of the most densely populated parts. This is
because the land is fertile and the rainfall is reliable. Consequently they are the
most intensively farmed areas, and there is a need to maximise the productivity of
the land. To maintain productivity in the long-
Our sister project, JOY Youth Training Centre, has been active in encouraging the setting up of small scale tree nurseries producing a wide variety of tree seedlings. We have already started to promote the use of these trees in the goat breeding projects.
The trees grown include nitrogen-
When erosion control is practiced (see above), it prevents the fertile topsoil from being washed away. It also reduces runoff of rainwater, so that more soaks into the soil where the crops are.
If the trees planted are nitrogen fixing, then they provide a high-
The dung from the goats contains water-