smallholder farmers in Northern Uganda achieve sustainable commercial farming:
Date Published:
Uganda is located in the Eastern side of Africa, Uganda is divided into regions and sub-regions:- Western Uganda, Eastern Uganda, Central Uganda and Northern Uganda. My wish is for Northern Uganda and more specifically the Acholi Sub-region because the poverty index here is at 65% compared to other regions and sub-regions that stands at only 5-15% .
One of the key factor for this high poverty level in Acholi sub-region is partly because of over 20 years of insurgency that ravaged the entire land of Acholi, people lived in the Internally displaced camps, making them relay on humanitarians assistance from World Food, Red Cross among others, this made the population more vulnerable, many lost their lives as a result of HIV/AIDS, abductions and wars, they were unable to do any economic activities and yet other parts of Uganda were economically active.
Due to the relative peace and has prevailed in Acholi sub-region, people are now living in their ancestral land, but the challenge is that they are unable to do commercial farming of at least 5 acres per household. Over 90% of the Acholi inhabitant lives in the rural area and their basic economic activities is farming. They lack skills of good agronomic practices, business skills and they need psycho-social support in order to to be productive through farming.
They lack finances to farm their land so that a household is able to have a minimum of 5 acres per season, on average; each acre of land in Acholi is able to yield a farm income of USD 410 (approximately UGX 1,500,000).
Now I wish there could be well-wishers who would come in to help these majority population in Acholi sub-region so that they can use their fertile land most profitably and be able to reduce the poverty index of 65% to the most minimum.
This intervention can be through training of the farming communities, by doing baseline survey to identify households to be supported, form groups, involve agronomists, business mentors and Counselors and carefully take them through all the technical areas so that they become more production, encouraging them to start sustainable projects among other issues that increase income for them.
One of the key factor for this high poverty level in Acholi sub-region is partly because of over 20 years of insurgency that ravaged the entire land of Acholi, people lived in the Internally displaced camps, making them relay on humanitarians assistance from World Food, Red Cross among others, this made the population more vulnerable, many lost their lives as a result of HIV/AIDS, abductions and wars, they were unable to do any economic activities and yet other parts of Uganda were economically active.
Due to the relative peace and has prevailed in Acholi sub-region, people are now living in their ancestral land, but the challenge is that they are unable to do commercial farming of at least 5 acres per household. Over 90% of the Acholi inhabitant lives in the rural area and their basic economic activities is farming. They lack skills of good agronomic practices, business skills and they need psycho-social support in order to to be productive through farming.
They lack finances to farm their land so that a household is able to have a minimum of 5 acres per season, on average; each acre of land in Acholi is able to yield a farm income of USD 410 (approximately UGX 1,500,000).
Now I wish there could be well-wishers who would come in to help these majority population in Acholi sub-region so that they can use their fertile land most profitably and be able to reduce the poverty index of 65% to the most minimum.
This intervention can be through training of the farming communities, by doing baseline survey to identify households to be supported, form groups, involve agronomists, business mentors and Counselors and carefully take them through all the technical areas so that they become more production, encouraging them to start sustainable projects among other issues that increase income for them.
