Give 35 families food security in Uganda

At Act4Africa, we recognise how crucial good agricultural practices are in a country where most people live hand to mouth and a great majority of families rely on growing their own crops. Our Grains for Growth Programme trains small-holder farmers in post-harvest grain loss reduction. Using traditional harvesting and storage methods farmers in Uganda lose 30% of their crops to mould and pests. They also are at risk of aflatoxins which are colourless, tasteless, odourless mould spores that cause cancer. Our programme teaches farmers (most of whom are women) to harvest in a way that doesn’t break the grain kernal, and provides them the opportunity to buy low-cost hermetic storage containers. Using these, farmers reduce their grain loss to zero. With the “extra” 30% they have improved food security at household level but also have the opportunity for increased income as they can store the grain safely and sell grain when prices are high, rather than selling immediately at harvest time.

In December, the Act4Africa team in Mayuge, Uganda started community engagement sessions to educate participants on the harvesting and storage methods we recommend. Next, our team will demonstrate the effectiveness of the storage methods by borrowing a small amount of grain to store in hermetic bags. These bags will be opened in a ceremony in a few months time, and the grain we stored will be compared to grain stored in the traditional way. This demonstration will show why we are doing what we do! Farmers will see that their own grain, which they grew themselves, lasts longer using our storage methods.

On Monday 6th December a community engagement session was held, led by our team and Alex and Jen from our partner organization, Harvest Solutions. Alex is a Lusoga speaking trainer, then local dialect for Mayuge District, and Jen is a local woman who was a beneficiary of a previous Harvest Solutions intervention. Our team received great feed-back from participants, Jen in particular really motivated people to participate in the programme by sharing her own stories of success. Moving forward the plan is to hold engagement and information sharing sessions with 5 groups of 15 people each.

Alex of Harvest Solutions and Patrick Kigongo, General Manager of Act4Africa Uganda, have continued to discuss the various benefits of the two types of storage containers we offer to farmers – hermetic bags vs silos. Both options provide improved grain storage however the grain silos are larger and longer lasting (but also more expensive) while the hermetic bags are cheaper and are more appropriate fo farmers with very small plots. They are considering offering the opportunity for farmers to form groups to purchase a silo together, which would perhaps test their level of trust with their neighbors but could create an opportunity for them to access the superior storage technology which would otherwise be too expensive. Of course the farmers could still choose to buy the storage bags instead, and save up for a silo from selling the grain they save using the bags. 

 Our team are also seeing that gender-based violence is closely linked to agriculture in that female small-holder farmers often do all of the work of planting, harvesting, storing, and selling grain and yet their husbands control the proceeds and may even become violent if the women challenge this. Therefore training on how to address gener-based violence will be provided for the Act4Africa field officers to ensure our work is holistic and truly supports beneficiaries without causing unintentional harm.

Stay tuned for more updates from this amazing project! Thank you so much for supporting Act4Africa!

Links:

• Act4Africa Website