Next destination: demonstration farm in Uganda

At the 6th of December 2011, I will fly to the next destination: Uganda! Besides visiting other contacts, I will be working mainly in Kasese, the west of Uganda, to establish a demonstration farm / consultancy with NECF, a local NGO. Below you can find more information about the demonstration farm. I will keep you updated through this website!

General information
Agriculture is the major component of the Ugandan economy accounting for about 33% of the GDP and over 70% of employment. However, subsistence oriented agriculture is practiced by many farmers in Uganda that at most lead to low production. Hence, the rural farmers in Uganda still face many challenges related to poor method of farming, low levels of technology, insufficient use of inputs, limited access to extension services and dependence on rain lead to low yields of production systems. On many occasions, pests and diseases affect the crops and livestock. There is a high level of loss of soil fertility due to erosion, exhaustion of soils due to poor soil management practices (source: NECF).

New Eden Commercial Farm and Community Study Farm project, once implemented will help the rural farming community discover modern agriculture methods, discover the use of growing a variety of crops on the same farm and on a bigger scale, discover some good methods about post harvest crop handling and other related issues.

Project Objectives
The general objective of this project is creating awareness about Farming as a business and creating a demonstration farm within the rural community to enable them acquire modern agricultural methodologies.

The specific objectives of this project are:
1. Demonstrating to the farmers the value of farming
2. Reducing costs for learning exposure visits for the rural farming community
3. Raising income for organizational financial sustainability

Implementation Plan
Creating awareness in respect of developing an integrated, exemplary and commercial farm that will be realized through:

• Identifying the right crops to be planted in the existing 10 acres of land
• Maintain the already planted crops
• Construct a permanent and well equipped building to accommodate staff, allow safe storage of the harvest, and accommodate the farm assets
• Develop a brooder for chicken and other edible birds

My role and responsibilities

I have been discussing the plans of NECF for the last year with Mr Nason. During my stay, we will analyze sustainable farming options for the farm, the curriculum for the Uganda farmers that can be taught at the demonstration farm, finance possibilities and future options. At this moment, several crops are planted on the 10 acres of land and the building is under construction. As I am specially interested in multi-cropping and improving soil fertility in combination with economic sustainable farming, I will blog about these issues during my stay in Uganda.

NECF

Information about the organisation
New Eden Christian Foundation (NECF) is a non-governmental organization based in Kasese district (in the west of Uganda) that was founded and established by Rev. Canon Nason Baluku in the year 2001, working with a diverse group of academics and community development workers in order to empower the rural community with knowledge and skills to bring about sustainable development.

The mission of NECF is to improve the quality of life of poor communities in Kasese’s rural areas by implementing social economic and environmentally sustainable projects with the participation of local communities and local leaders. Being a Christ-Centred organization, NECF values integrity, excellence, stewardship and dignity and the organization therefore believes in implementing projects with proper accountability. The organization is currently working with Kasese district Communities to plan and implement community improvement projects in the rural areas, focusing on both men and women issues and rural development.

More information will follow.