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Field schools training farmers adapt to climate change
Farmers showcasing the different activities that they are engaged in and what they have learnt from Farmers Field Schools (FFSs). FFSs are helping in mobilising farmers to learn better agricultural practices to boost production as well as enable them adapt to challenges like climate change. PHOTOS BY BRIAN MUTEBI
For Charles Rugumayo, life as a porter at a construction site in Kampala was difficult, so he chose to go back to his village in Kitovu-Bugonzi, Kitenga Sub-country Mubende District.
There, the 44-year-old, would grow food to feed his large family of 12 children as well as earn income to cater for their needs. But success in farming was not guaranteed either as he soon realised.
“The rains were not regular and the land was so dry which made crop farming difficult,” he said, “Everybody in the village was literally lamenting that practising agriculture had become very difficult.”
Change in weather, characterised by prolonged drought spells and irregular rainfall patterns, is one of the evident impacts of climate change.
And, in a country where agriculture relies on natural factors like rainfall, irregularities in such factors make farming very difficult.
Mubende is one of the six districts in the southern cattle belt implementing a project to train farmers in ways of practising agriculture that enables them adapt to the harsh realities of climate change.
Community Care for Development Uganda (C-Care), a non-government organisation, with support from Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO), is implementing such a project. It is a two-year national pilot project.
In addition to Mubende, the other districts are: Kiboga where the Hunger Project Uganda is the implementing organisation, Caritas for Luwero and Nakaseke, Nakasongola District Farmers Association for Nakasongola, Sembabule District Farmers Association and The Lutheran Foundation in Sembabule.
Farmer field schools
The farmers were divided into groups called Farmers Field Schools (FFS) and taught sustainable agricultural practices.
Other lessons, according to Joyce Nakiwungu, the C-Care Fields Facilitator in Mubende, include agroforestry, soil and water conservation, water shade management, marketing, post-harvest harvesting, saving and microfinance among others.
Mubende has 56 such field schools, and there are 53 in Kiboga, 48 in Nakaseke, 48 in Nakasongola, 48 in Luwero and 96 in Sembabule.
According to Annabella Najjemba, programme assistant, FAO, each FFS has a membership of 25 to 30 members. This means at least 8,725 farmers are involved.
Rugumayo joined one of them, Agali Awamu or translated into English as Strength in Unity.
“The trainer explained we were to acquire knowledge on appropriate methods of farming that despite the drought spells and the dryness of the land, we would thrive in farming,” he recalls.
But the dry weather was not the only problem that Rugumayo and other farmers in the area faced. There was also a shortage of land.
With the increase in migration of people from other areas to Mubende, land is increasingly becoming a scarce resource.
Mushroom growing
“The solution was in training farmers to grow crops on small pieces of land but get higher yields,” says Nakiwungu. Rugumayo chose the growing of mushrooms.
Mushroom seeds are planted in pockets of polythene bags that contain a mixture of farmers’ lime with either millet, sisal or cotton husks and a biodegradable solvent called bio-safe.
This mixture is put in the dark room for three weeks. The mushrooms sprout and are taken to the growing room from where they are harvested. The farmer can sell the mushrooms fresh or after drying them.
With the relatively high cost of hydroelectric power and the need to promote green technology, solar energy driers are sold to the farmers through village saving and credit schemes, at low interest rates.
Farmers refer to the polythene bag pouches as gardens. Rugumayo has 100 ‘gardens’ on a 3X3 metre piece of land from which he gets 30 kilograms of dry mushrooms.
He sells a kilogramme of dry mushrooms at Shs30,000, earning him Shs900,000 in gross sales. His operation cost is about Shs350,000 on items like buying lime, husks, bio-safe, water for watering his garden and buying of seeds, thus making profit of about Shs550,000 in three months.
Organised hatching
Agali Awamu FFS has 25 members including those from other field schools who engage in various farming activities.
Some, for example, do poultry, particularly what they call organised hatching. This is where a farmer with, say, 10 hens ensures all the hens brood and hatch at the same time.
The farmer does this by removing every egg laid and replacing it with a boiled one, in a way to dupe the laying hen.
The normal eggs are stored in a dry place with temperatures between 25 and 30 degree centigrade. At a time that the farmer deems fit for the hens to begin actual brooding, the normal eggs are returned for the hens to brood. The hens are able to hatch at about the same time.
“With organised hatching, the farmer enjoys economies of scale,” says Laban Rutale, national coordinator, C-Care.
He explains: “If a farmer has 10 hens and all hatch at the same time, say, 10 chicks, that is 100 chicks. If such a farmer is to transport the chicks to the market he would use the same cost of transport like a farmer who had 10 hens and only three hatched at the same. The second farmer with only 30 chicks will incur the cost of transport like the first farmer who had 100 chicks.”
Growing vegetable on mounds
Another group, Muleete Community Group grows vegetables within compounds of the members’ houses.
The vegetables are grown in mounds where several vegetable shoots sprout out on one pyramid-like mound.
This according to Paul Emilia, the head of office, FAO Mubende, is helping farmers “in the area with shortage of land maximise a small piece of land to get higher yields.”
Movable gardens
Other farmers like Sunday Robert from Kibyamirizi Kisa Kya Mukama Farmers Group are growing beans and maize on movable gardens.
Movable gardens that vary in sizes but on average of about 5x3 metres are constructed by joining together pieces of wood that are filled with soils and organic manure. Maize or bean seeds are then planted.
The philosophy of moving gardens is that in periods of hot sunshine, the garden can be moved from its position to under a tree shade to protect the plants from the sun.
When the weather conditions are appropriate, the garden is lifted back. Other farmers were engaged into zero grazing while others grow high yielding potato varieties.
Emilia said FAO through the field schools was not aiming at teaching farmers what to do but learn from them whose experiences will be shared with other 44 countries around the world where similar projects are piloted.
In October, 660 farmers from two sub-counties; Kitenga and Kigando in Mubende District, graduated from the two-year farmer fields’ practical training course.
“We are giving skills to farmers to adapt to climate change in farming and boost their incomes,” said Rutale “For that we can reduce poverty and domestic violence.”
At the graduation ceremony at Kitenga sub county headquarters, various women said conflicts reduced in their homes because they are food secure.
“My husband would quarrel because he was not happy eating potatoes without sauce. But now, I grow vegetables and we always have vegetables so we are happy,” one woman said.
It is noteworthy as Najjemba, FAO’s programme assistant points out, that field schools are helping farmers understand climate change and adapt to it.
She said the farmers somehow experienced changes in climate but did not understand what it was. “They (farmers) could tell you the signs as such changes in planting seasons or crops they used to grow then but do not flourish today but they did not know these are the impacts of climate change,” Najjemba said.
Farmers are not only food secure but their incomes are boasted in addition to providing gainful employment to the youth. Crops like vegetables are rich in nutrients which help fight malnutrition among children.
Rugumayo displayed his mushroom ‘gardens’ with a smile as he narrated: “While working as a porter at a construction site in Kampala, life was difficult. I earned very little money, about Shs7,000 a day.
My lunch was as small as a piece of boiled yam and water despite the fact that the kind of work I did required lots of energy. At times I would forego lunch all together so as to save some money for food and other necessities at home. I developed ulcers. Today, I am a happy man. I get income from my mushroom gardens. I eat well, I feed my children very well, we are healthy.”
