In the hills of Sebei Sub-region, where maize, onions, beans and Irish potatoes dominate the first season and barley and sorghum take over in the second, farmers are rewriting how they grow crops.
On a rainy day in Benet sub-county, Kween District, members of the Ganan Farmers Group are elbow-deep in basins, mixing tisonia leaves, wood ash and crushed stone dust to make biofertiliser for their barley gardens.
‘We use tisonia leaves, phytolacca dodecandra leaves, wood ash, crushed stone dust, and water,’ says group chairperson Evelyn Kabuno. ‘The leaves are cut into small pieces and mixed in a basin with the other materials. The mixture ferments for two weeks, and we stir it every two days.’
After sieving, the liquid is sprayed on barley at a ratio of one litre of fertiliser to four litres of water. The group makes biopesticides the same way, using tisonia leaves, chopped onions, blue soap and crushed red pepper.
Ganan is one of 38 farmer groups under the Elgon Pamoja Project, run by Aid Environment with funding from Uganda Breweries Limited. The project works with 750 farmers across barley and sorghum-growing areas in Kween, Kapchorwa, Bukwo and Bulambuli districts.
‘Barley and sorghum are the main raw materials for UBL, so the project aims at increasing the productivity of the two crops in the region and improving the livelihoods of the farmers,’ says project manager Eliakim Kibet.
Beyond organic inputs, farmers are learning to build soil and water conservation structures. In most gardens, trenches measuring two feet by two feet are dug ten metres apart to slow runoff.
Benet Sub-county agricultural officer Amos Mali says the hilly region has fertile soils, but heavy rains wash away the topsoil.
‘This causes declining soil fertility, which together with deforestation, affects productivity. So, we welcome the training efforts of the Elgon Pamoja Project which are helping farmers to conserve the environment and increase agricultural productivity,’ he says.
The project also distributed tree seedlings two weeks ago to help hold soil in place during the rains. Farmers are also trained in financial literacy, biodigester construction and rainwater harvesting.
Clean cooking with cow dung
For Sophie Chepkwuri of Kapyesi Farmers Group, the biggest change has been at home. She now cooks with biogas from a biodigester installed at her house in Kapchorwa Municipality.
‘As a family, we used to buy firewood at a high price. We would buy a bundle for Shs5,000, which was not even enough to cook our food. Another challenge was that in the rainy season, it was not easy to light wet wood,’ she says. ‘Today, all I need is Napier grass, which I grow behind my house.’
The grass, mixed with desmodium, banana suckers and maize bran, feeds her four cows. Their dung goes into the biodigester daily – two basins of dung mixed with four jerrycans of water.
‘Anyone in my household, including my husband, can do this work because it is easy. It is not like going to look for firewood, which is a household chore restricted to women and girls,’ Chepkwuri says.
The digester holds 4,000 litres of mixture. Bacteria break it down into methane gas that flows to her kitchen through a valve, says Aid Environment’s regenerative agriculture expert Dismas Cheptoek. The residue becomes biofertiliser for her coffee, banana and barley gardens.
Before, Chepkwuri sold banana bunches for Shs15,000. Now they go for Shs25,000 to Shs30,000.
‘The only challenge for me in the entire biodigester system is the amount of water I have to use,’ she adds. ‘In my home area, water flows from our taps for only two hours a day. If I miss out, I have to send a bodaboda rider to the spring to fetch water for me. This is very expensive.’
The system costs around Shs2.5 million. Farmers contribute 60% in local materials, while the project covers 40%.
Water tanks ease the burden
In Kaplakatet Upper Village, Kween District, Mary Chemutai no longer walks two kilometres for water. A rainwater harvesting tank, built with project support, now serves her home.
‘During the rainy season, the tank saves us from walking long distances in search of water. The nearest water source is two kilometres away and at my age, I can no longer walk there,’ she says.
The water also helped her build a commercial structure in front of her home.
‘Previously, we were hiring donkeys to ferry jerrycans of water from the water source, at Shs2,000 per trip. Today, though, we are able to do a lot of work at home because we no longer waste time walking to the spring,’ she adds.
For UBL, which collects up to 5,000 metric tons of barley, 1,500 metric tons of sorghum and 5,000 metric tons of corn from the region annually, the gains are long-term.
‘With the biodigesters, water tanks, and tree seedlings, and the construction of trenches, the Elgon Pamoja Project has given farmers techniques that will last for generations to come,’ says Yudaya Annita Munanda, UBL’s regional agronomy manager for Mt Elgon.
For the farmers, it’s less about buying inputs and more about using what’s already around them – leaves, ash, cow dung, and rain – to keep the soil alive and the costs down.