Warning: If you killed the lake you might kill the land too!

Recently I had the privilege of training farmers who live in the shores of Lake Kyoga at the northern most tip of Busoga in a town called Bukungu. Many of the farmers had previously been relying on fishing in the large, sprawling lake but now that Kyoga is choking from water hyacinth, water lettuce and water fern (all invasive species) with little or no intervention from the government fishing is a dwindling business . These problems are only exacerbated by over fishing on the lake where fish are harvested immaturely and siltation from soil erosion makes things even worse. All of these problems add together to make an eminent natural disaster; the lake is dying from mismanagement.





On the shores of Lake Kyoga training people in Farming God's Way. They have left fishing (because of the dying lake) for farming; the danger is that they will treat the land the same way they treated the lake. Let's learn to be faithful with what we have otherwise the little we have may be taken away.








The lake is choking with weeds like Water Hyacinth

Not much is different on the land; the land is choked with difficult weeds like Striga (witchweed) and Couch grass average yields are declining to levels that can hardly support a family. The land is mishandled like the lake and the results are the same.

As I started my conversation with the farmers on the first day of our workshop I felt I must warn them; "If you are killing the lake you will also kill the land -- unless you change" We concentrated our training on being faithful with the gifts God has give us as farmers; soil, rain, our time, energy and money. If we don't learn how to be good stewards we will turn from one resource to another, destroying it and making it useless to the following generations.


The lesson is bigger than this, though. The Bible teaches that if we are not faithful with this world's wealth we will not be trustworthy with true riches.


Have you taken God's resources for granted? It's time to make use of what God has extended to you; grace and mercy in His Son, Jesus Christ.


Please pray for our farmers in Bukungu to faithfully apply what they have learned.