Abstract

The current agriculture land uses around Kibale National Park forest have been expanding towards the forest area threatening its conservation efforts and this has contributed to crop raiding and destruction to the neighbouring agricultural communities. This study was conducted to identify and assess the suitability of major agricultural land uses around Kibale National Park. The major agricultural land uses included; Banana (Musa spp), Maize (Zea mays) and Tea production (Camellia sinensis) and these were identified using three randomly selected transects of 5 km per transect, and obtaining information using a structured questionnaire administered to 30 key farming households near Kibale National Park. Soil samples were also taken within the identified major agricultural land uses at the depths of 0-15 and 15-30 cm. Physical suitability of the major agricultural land-uses was assessed by matching their requirements with existing land qualities extracted from the Uganda soil memoires. Results showed that, western part of Kabarole District is highly suitable for tea production, the southern part is highly suitable for maize and the northern part is highly suitable for banana. The central part of Kabarole was found to be highly suitable for both banana and maize. The study finally recommended a buffer zone of 3.5 km from the national park planted with tea and eucalyptus around the national park boundary for crop defense separating agricultural communities and Kibale National Park since there not affected by animal raids and destruction.

Key words: Major agricultural land use, land qualities, land suitability.