Katine’s 18 farmers groups offered money to help cope with drought and food shortages affecting north-east Uganda
Katine farmers are being encouraged to apply for funds to support income generating ideas to improve livelihoods in the sub-county.
The African Medical and Research Foundation (Amref), which is implementing a three-year development project in the sub-county, with assistance from Farm-Africa, has put up UShs 18m (around US$8,700) to fund proposals submitted by the 18 farmers groups.
The move follows a drought in the region that has left crops destroyed and many families in dire need.
At the beginning of the season, the farmers groups, which cover around 540 households, were given seeds under the project’s livelihoods component. But erratic rainfalls have not produced the intended harvest.
Livelihoods project assistant David Ogwang says climate change had proved that it was “dangerous” to rely on giving farmers seeds. “We want to supply farmers with inputs as well as provide them with alternative income generating activities. That is why we have asked the farmers to submit their proposals stating the kind of enterprises they would want to run,” he said.
Each group has been allocated UShs 1m and has been invited to propose ways in which it could be spent. Amref is advising farmers on which enterprise to choose, according to the ability of each group to manage it, and will evaluate each proposal. Farmers will not be given the money directly. Amref will conduct any procurement involved.
The scheme will start off with affordable ventures, such as supporting farmers to buy hens, or goats. It would not run to the purchase of cattle. Ogwang says Amref would not consider such expensive ideas until it was sure the farmers were capable of taking care of the animals. Katine has no veterinary services, although the project has trained some animal health workers to help bridge the gap.
So far, most of the farmers’ proposals have been for funding for animals.
“We have nothing; all our crops have been destroyed by the drought. That is why we, as Ajobi farmers, are changing to sheep rearing. You know, the problem is that the project over emphasised farm inputs without considering the factor of climate. In farming there are two things with crops; you either lose or gain, but it’s not the case with rearing animals,” said Charles Otuba, the group’s vice-chairman.
Members of the Olwelai farmers group have applied for money to rear goats.
Olocoi’s farmers group wants to use the money to enhance its village savings and loans association (VSLA). The group’s chairman, Cornelius Onaba, says the decision to zero in on VSLAs follows a consensus that this could accelerate living standards more quickly.
“Each group is supposed to get UShs 1m to run enterprises of their choice, but this money is too little to cover all the 30 members of a [VSLA] group. So what we have agreed in our proposal is that we support our VSLA such that members are able to borrow money and use it to run their business. We also agreed that each member who borrows that money will have to pay certain interest. In this way we believe that the money would help us, rather than using it to buy goats,” Onaba said.
Whether Onaba’s plan is approved, however, is unclear. While Amref is interested in enhancing VSLAs, which are run in Katine by Care International and local NGO Uweso, the rules around these associations may not allow for extra money to be added.