Climate change adoption for 100 farmers in Uganda

Each year, nearly 3% of Uganda's forests (73.6kha) are cut down for fuel, agriculture and to make room for an increasing population.  Bulyango parish, located in Hoima district is a community that has experienced adverse deforestation. The area has experienced extreme environmental degradation mainly as a result of human activities which include;  wetland reclamation, massive deforestation for agriculture, timber, wood fuel, and poor farming practices among others. Due to these activities, chimpanzees that used to live uphill were displaced, so is river Waaki down the valley which has almost dried up. It is harder for smallholder farmers to produce enough food due to degraded soils and changing weather patterns.

This project which is being implemented in Bulyango Parish, Kitoba sub-county, Hoima (Uganda) focuses on mitigating the adverse effects of climate change that is being experienced by smallholder farmers. It aims at improving their standards of living by integrating better agricultural practices with environmental restoration, with future plans for value addition to bamboo as a means of ensuring sustainable development. The three areas of the project are 1) promoting gasifier cooking stoves that will save time and use less wood, 2) making biochar from agricultural wastes and 3)  bamboo growing.

• The project kicked off on 25/11/2021, we started by sensitising the smallholder farmers in the target area who are already organised into small groups called Village Savings and Loans Associations (VSLAs). The project was explained to them in detail including how it will be implemented in phases and the future opportunities especially in creating various bamboo products that will diversify their incomes. In October, Giving Hope Foundation received the funds for the project. We decided to start with distributing gasifier stoves, later demonstrate the making of biochar and compost from agricultural wastes. Bamboo will be planted in March 2022 at the beginning of the rainy season.
• We identified the bamboo supplier who will also train the farmers in bamboo growing from seedling to harvest. We have scheduled a farm visit on 24 January 2022, to see practically how bamboo is grown. This will be followed by training for the farmers on 28, February 2022.
• We ordered 50 gasifier stoves and so far 10 have been delivered which we have not yet distributed because we are waiting for the suppliers to come and demonstrate to the recipients how to make and use them effectively.
• Biochar, farmers have started collecting and piling up solid agricultural residues especially from maize, beans and cassava which will be used for the training.
  

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• The clean fire of a gasifier stove