Lucretia Agri-Organisation Uganda

In Uganda, Smallholder farmers contribute 90% of the maize produced with the balance 10% produced by commercial estate farms for export, with Kiryandongo, Gulu and Lira the leading maize producing districts. Their diverse agroecological system enriched with fertile soils that capture adequate amounts of rainwater create suitable agroecological environment for maize cultivation.

Kiryandongo district Commercial Report 2019 indicated rapid deterioration in maize quality, reduced quantity and yield from 1,800kg/acre to 850kg/acre attributed to poor maize seed quality, low quality agricultural inputs and limited agricultural training lowering farmer maize productivity, threatening household incomes and food supply.

This informed our decision to establish two community farmer schools (CFSs) pilot project to build the capacity of 250 smallholder farmer households in market-driven maize production, link them to viable market and offer agribusiness management strategies, improving their maize productivity and incomes. 

Our target is 3,500 farmer households’  from the farming community of Kiryandongo district.

The national Operation Wealth Creation program that replaced the national agricultural advisory services mainly carry's out preseason deliveries of maize seeds with minimal agricultural advice and training rendered to farmers in Kiryandongo district. 

20% of these Kiryandongo district smallholder farmers have access to agricultural extension services with the remaining 80% deprived due to financial and geographical constraints. The agricultural service provided to farmers is poor and inadequate with 1(one) extension staff assigned to over 900 smallholder farmers, limiting his/her effective one-on-one farmer interaction. 

This is worsened by poor maize seed quality, unreliable maize markets, limited access to agricultural inputs and climate change shocks, which remarkably lowered farmer maize yield from 1800 kg/ac to 850kg/ac. 

As a result, 95% of smallholder farmer households in Kiryandongo district are increasingly becoming vulnerable to food insecurity and absolute poverty.

Our community farmer schools has built the capacity of 250 farmer households in market-driven maize production increasing their maize yield by 45%, an extra 380 kg of maize grain per cultivated acre. This has improved on their household food supply and incomes, safeguarding them from malnutrition and hunger.

We plan to expand our project to reach out to more 3,250 farmer households within Kiryandongo District.

The, “Improved and sustainable climate smart maize production for better Livelihoods in Ugandan rural communities”, project is being implemented through our Community Farmer School model.

Community farmer schools (CFS) are used to provide smallholder farmers with hands-on training and build their capacity in efficient market driven maize production.

Farmers are taken from one-step ahead agronomic training sequences where farmers participate an interactive hands-on training session.

The farming training encompass;

• Pre-seasonal planning and capital rising
• Land preparation for maize cultivation (clearing and ploughing)
• Maize planting and fertilizer application management
• Field pest and disease management practices
• Maize harvesting and post-harvest handling practices
• Maize market link establishment and contract signing with agro-processing companies.

This enables smallholder farmers meet market quality standard, negotiate better sale price and gained  profits from each kilogram of maize grain sold.

We are initiating registration of all our farmers into a farmer database system to create a mobile platform that supports their interaction with agricultural input dealers and agro-processing companies within the maize value chain.

We have also engaged registered seed multipliers within the community to increase on their certified maize seed production to meet increasing demand from smallholder farmers boost their maize production in Kiryandongo district.

Our project is intended to improve the standard of living of the rural poor smallholder farmers through improved maize production and incomes using a community farmer school approach. Smallholder farmers in Kiryandongo have limited land for cultivation, poor maize quality and low maize yield which has locked them into absolute poverty unable to access quality food, health care and education services.

Community Farmer Schools create conducive learning environments for farmer capacity building in market drive maize production. 95% of the farmers have recorded a 45% increment in maize productivity per acre, attributed to improved farmer access to quality maize seeds and agricultural inputs and training from our intervention.

The 45% increment in maize production generated an extra 300 kg of maize grain producing 270 kg of maize flour for food and 30 kg of maize bran which is sold to poultry feed processing companies. This has reduced food insecurity and increase household incomes of farmers benefiting 1,250 household members.

We have facilitated the establishment of maize supply contract between 250 smallholder farmers and Kimtex Millers. This has stabilized maize price, boosted maize production and increased smallholder farmer incomes enabling them to access better health care and housing facilities.

85% of Kiryandongo district population are smallholder farmers under poor living standards. 95% of these smallholder farmers are faced with low maize yields, poor agronomic practices and poor grain quality which is reducing on their household incomes and food supply.

80% of our training in Hands-on demonstration of appropriate maize agronomic and agribusiness management practices and 20% farmer experience sharing. This has increased maize yield of 250 farmer by 45%, from 850kg to 1150kg per acre of maize cultivated.

Improved farmer maize grain quality has attracted better prices contributing to increased household incomes, food supply and better standards of living. 

Community farmer schools established within the farming communities with grain/food bulking shade and demonstrations plots for knowledge transfer.

We have used both field staff -to-farmer and farmer-to-farmer extension approach in integrating indigenous technical knowledge with new agricultural knowledge, innovation and technology for a sustainable solution to rural food production. 

Unlike farmer school approach we have incorporates village loan savings system into CFSs building financial fund accessed by farmer for capital and currently establishing a mobile platform connecting farmers to agricultural input dealers, extension workers and agricultural processing companies for sustainable food production and supply systems.

This has cut out middlemen while supporting sustainable maize market linkages between the farmers and agricultural processing companies. Field staff in collaboration with farmer leaders oversee project activities, identify maize production issue, solutions and decision-making for better maize productivity and production.

Our Community Farmer School model constantly offers farmer's platform to expand their knowledge and skills in maize and agricultural production, environmental conservation and protection measures for a sustainable food ecosystem.

We are currently developing FarmServe App with farmer management and database to ensure smallholder farmers have instant agricultural advice on appropriate crop agronomy, agrochemicals management, agricultural market information and new technologies system.

All community farmer school training will be recorded on the FarmServe database system to track quality task completion.

Field staff use the application;

1. To profile smallholder farmers and their household members to establish their standard of living
2. To assess agricultural division of labour and farmer adherence to agricultural labour policies
3. Monitor field crop performance and farmer crop management practices
4. To link smallholder farmers to potential agro-processing companies.

The FarmServe will be built to be accessed by farmers on an ordinary mobile network through SMS interaction when seeking for information. This improves farmer access to agronomic and market information  throughout the maize crop season.  

British American Tobacco before there departure from Uganda operated BAT Leaf system. The BAT Leaf system was a grower management system with a database managing over 20,000 smallholder farmers from Westnile, Northern and Bunyoro Regions of Uganda.

Smallholder farmers where monitored from time of registration, contract signing, tobacco production and selling.

Bat leaf was used to monitor farmer agronomic training and practices right from seedbed operation to tobacco marketing period.

This ensure traceability of tobacco source, good farmer agronomic practices and good quality leaf of high grade which increased farmer production to meet increasing customer demand.

Tobacco farmers had more incomes from their agricultural production compared to farmers engaged in other agricultural value chains, hence better placed in meet their personal and household needs.

This inspired me to create FarmServe a replica of BAT Leaf but with the community farmer school approach incorporated into it to enhance our efforts in achieving a maize market-driven production system in Northern Uganda.

We have 10(ten) CFSs benefit 250 farmer households under the management of 55 elected farmer representatives: farmer leader, two contact farmers, secretary and treasurer. We are currently running two main demonstration with an average of 5 community farmer school in the villages of Opok, kikungulu and kabonye in kiryandongo District. Participating farmers are taken through a comprehensive agricultural and agribusiness training dependent on the maize crop season stages.

With the Solve MIT fund we be able to expand the community farmer schools to benefit 1500 farmer households in Kiryandongo district within year one.

In other fifth year of project implementation, the community farmer schools model will be extended to a wider geographical area archiving results and outputs that benefit 10,000 farmer households from Kiryandongo, Gulu and Lira Districts. The funding will facilitate all our operations regarding project implementation, monitoring, evaluation, reporting and communication.

Solve MIT funds will be broken down as follows: 10% administrative costs and 90% recurrent expenditure (operations). The operations include farmer training, technology development, Farmer Field Schools: procuring climatic resistant seeds and creating linkage to markets. 

Project Impact: Improved smallholder farmer and household members access to quality food supply and better health care in Mid-North and Northern Uganda.

Project goal: Contributing to increased household maize supply and incomes within rural communities in Uganda.

Project Objectives:

• Increase smallholder farmer access to high yielding quality maize seeds and agricultural inputs by 90%.
• Build capacity 10,500 smallholder farmers on appropriate skills and knowledge in market-driven maize production.
• Build farmers financial management capacity, create new and support already existing maize market linkages.

Pilot Project Outcomes:

• Increased farmers and community cohesion in agricultural and socio-economic activities.
• Increased awareness of 250 smallholder farmers on climate change contributors and environmental conservation measures
• Enhanced farmer knowledge and skill in maize production, farm finance and agricultural technologies.