15 July 2002
A food Security Project being undertaken by World Vision, Uganda, is to benefit up to 36,000 households in the districts of Gulu, Kitgum an Pader.
The four-year scheme is funded by the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) which offered $3m. An additional $370,000 was pulled by World Vision as a matching grant.
The project started two years ago and involves training farmers in agronomic and marketing skills, giving them loans, seeds, oxen, ploughs and other farm tools. The farmers are also trained on improved storage.
"One of the objectives of the project is to increase household income by providing agricultural extension services to increase rural food production for consumption and sale," said Basilio Okello, the Project Manager.
The other target is to boost nutrition, especially among children through increased production, as well as sensitising the women on the importance of providing proper meals to their babies.
In Gulu, the project covers 10 sub-counties in Omoro and Kilak counties. The beneficiaries in Kitgum are drawn from the seven sub-counties of Amida, Namukora, Omia-anyima, Kitgum-Matidi, Lagoro, Layamo and Akwang. Pader has three sub-counties of Atanga, Laguti and Acholibur.
"So far we have covered 47% of our project objectives, and we hope to cover the rest in the remaining two years," Okello said.
Lawrence Oroma, the Kitgum Area manager, said the project would help over 13,000 households improve their food security by acquiring better farming methods and increasing production.
"The idea here is that we give the seeds to farmers on loan and train them on how to multiply the seeds," Oroma said.
Crops promoted include rice, beans, maize, millet, Soya beans, sorghum, cassava and groundnuts.
World Vision, which has recruited its own agricultural extension workers in all the sub-counties of its operation, co-ordinates its activities with the National Agricultural Research Organisation (NARO) and district agricultural structures.
"We have planted 24 acres of cassava under multiplication. World Vision has been distributing cassava stems to farmers, after which, we again buy from them and distribute to other farmers," Okello said. The varieties being bred include NASE 10, NASE 12 and TME 14.
The co-operative marketing societies and farmers' marketing associations are given cash loans which they pay back with minimal interest within an eight-year grace period. "For instance, last October, we gave a soft loan of sh15m to Pabbo Rice Growers Co-operative Society, and they are to pay back with a sh1.2m interest," Okello said.
The organisation is also revamping the animal traction mode of ploughing, where a group of five households is given a pair of oxen and one ox-plough on credit to share.
Okello said: "It's a revolving loan arrangement. A group is given a pair of oxen, ox- ploughing bulls. Together, 163 ploughs have been disbursed to 815 member households.
"We need to strengthen the oxen component because we have realised that the biggest problem the farmers face is lack of capacity to open more acres of land," Okello said.
World Vision is also promoting energy-conserving stoves and agro-forestry components, including tree planting. Here, farmers are given seedlings and trained on tree planting methods, as well as how to use minimal firewood in cooking.
By last September, over 70,000 seedlings of different tree species had been raised, and at least 50,000 of them planted through 52 community nurseries operated by farmers' groups. "The majority of our beneficiaries are women because they are better at organising themselves in groups than men," Okello said. The project Extension Co-ordinator for Gulu, Paul Okello disclosed that a total of 23,000 households were to benefit in the district. Women groups are given priority, "because they are the backbone of agriculture."
He, however, noted that insecurity caused by Kony rebels had hindered many farmers from accessing their farmlands in the countryside.
Admittedly, the project has helped to boost food production in the war-stricken Acholi.
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