Kampala — NORTHERN Uganda is endowed with various herbs and nutritious fruit trees which can help in fighting poverty and improve nutrition. But because of insecurity, ignorance and inadequate funds, the bio-diversity is not being tapped.

One of the vitamin-rich fruit trees is Borassus palm (tugo), which grows in the wild. Its trunk is split and used as poles for roofing houses and its leaves are used for making mats. "Tugo fruits are also used for making salt. The fruits is rich in food values and money can be earned from it," said George Obong, the coordinator of 'The Northern Foods Project (NFP)'. The community-based NGO is piloting on processing tugo wine from the fruit.

Started last year with only 10 members, the project now has over 60 members, most of whom are rural-based women from the pilot sub-counties of Adekokwok (Lira) and Aboke in Apac district. Each member must have at least one tugo tree in their garden.

"We appeal to donors to help us to enable the project grow so that we can fight poverty," Alice Okello, a 75-year-old disabled widow at Te-Obia in Boroboro parish, said.

She has over 500 palm trees, and is one of the women getting hands-on skills to process tugo wine. "Apart from wine, tugo can be used for making salt, honey and nutritious porridge, especially for children," added Okello. Other uses include making baskets, bags, other handicrafts from its foliage, and as wood fuel.

The NGO has over 200 types and uses of local plants. Some of the traditional plants are effective medicine for different diseases. It has also started 'manufacturing' vaseline in 50gm and 100gm packs sold at sh600 and sh1,000, and is effective in curing skin rashes, pimples and scabies.

Obong said, "Once we have a solid market for our tugo wine, we will also start processing mangoes." But, they still lack modern equipment, storage facilities, and markets for the wine. For the tugo wine, a 20-litre jerrycan is sold at sh50,000.

Last year, a team from the Natural Chemotherapeutic Research Laboratory (NCRC) under the ministry of health at Wandegeya, Kampala, visited the Northern Foods Project to ascertain its viability. The centre's director, Dr. Grace Nambatya, hailed the project for being in line with the government's objective of using community-based approach to boost nutrition and fight poverty through community awareness of indigenous plants and their values.

"Our role is to identify such community initiatives so that we can assist them with the Poverty Action Fund (PAF), through the ministry of finance," Nambatya said. She added that the insecurity in Apac and Lira districts have not halted their plans. The project has three components: Food processing to fight malnutrition, medicinal plants for community health, and art and crafts to raise household incomes.

It is aimed at sustainable utilisation and management of natural resources, including fruit crops and medicinal plants, as well as rational exploitation of the fruit crops to ensure proper ecological balance and soil conservation. She said after identifying their needs, her department would help the NFP with processors, train them on how to preserve and package their products.

"What we now need is funding, security and the market. We have enough raw materials and many members are willing to join hands in the project," said Obong. Apart from funding, the group still lacks the required equipment to go into full-scale processing of tugo wine, mango and other fruits.