Responsibility came early for Abdullahi Yusuf Banya. Born to Yusuf and grandson of Banya, he completed Primary Seven in 1970, financing most of his schooling. Becoming a young father that same year forced him into adulthood quickly, supported by his own father, who offered him advice and a cow as a foundation for his new family.
In 1972, his uncle, businessman Onurya Amakobo, brought him into trading. His firstborn, Abdurrahman, now Dr Sanya Rahmani, a Makerere University PhD holder, grew up during this period. But the 1979 war shattered Abdullahi’s progress, sending him into exile and costing him a shop valued at Shs1.2 million.
Abdullahi returned from exile in 1985 and began rebuilding through agriculture on family land in Lipa village, Koboko.
Bananas, maize, cassava and rice formed the backbone of his early efforts. He established a family cooperative: his wife served as treasurer, his eldest son as secretary.
By 1988, his banana plantation was regarded among the best in West Nile. The Lutheran World Federation brought farmers from Moyo and Adjumani in 1990 to learn from his work. A year later, evaluators from the US and Canada urged him to invest in fruit trees, advice that gained urgency when a destructive thunderstorm wiped out his bananas in 1993.
He adapted, diversifying into mangoes, avocados, coffee and cocoa. Over three decades he planted more than 60 mango trees, 60 avocados, hundreds of coffee shrubs and several cocoa varieties, unknowingly pioneering climate-smart agroforestry long before it became a national priority.
Refugee pressure
Uganda’s refugee-hosting districts face some of the country’s highest rates of environmental stress. Fuelwood and charcoal demand drive deforestation; wetlands and forests shrink; and population growth intensifies pressure on land.
Recognising the urgency, the Government of Uganda secured financing from the World Bank to implement the Investing in Forests and Protected Areas for Climate-Smart Development (IFPA-CD) project under the Ministry of Water and Environment.
Under IFPA-CD, Catholic Relief Services (CRS) implements the component titled ‘Intensive Mixed-Use Agroforestry Systems on Household Plots’ across 19 refugee-hosting or refugee-adjacent districts in Western and Northern Uganda.
According to Joseph Aston Ebinu, Programme Manager II – Agroforestry at Catholic Relief Services, the project responds directly to pressures on land and natural resources.
‘We aim to balance community needs with conservation-helping people depend on the environment sustainably while restoring it for future generations,’ Ebinu says.
The goal is ambitious: restore 17,550 hectares and reach 87,782 households from 2024 to 2026 while promoting tree-crop-livestock integration to boost food security, income and soil health.
Complementary expertise
At the centre of the restoration work is a consortium led by Catholic Relief Services (CRS), bringing together organisations whose strengths fit seamlessly into the complex needs of refugee-hosting landscapes. The International Centre for Research in Agroforestry (ICRAF), also known as the World Agroforestry Centre, contributes the scientific backbone of the initiative, providing species research, soil analysis and evidence-based agroforestry models tailored to fragile ecosystems.
Ecotrust complements this scientific approach with deep community engagement and a focus on environmental stewardship. Its work strengthens landscape governance, ensuring that restoration efforts are not only technically sound but also socially anchored and jointly owned by host communities and refugees.
According to Eric Francis Acanakwo, the ICRAF Country Representative, the partnership thrives precisely because no single organisation could navigate the enormity of the challenge alone.
Refugee settlements, he explains, are dynamic zones where agriculture, settlement expansion, energy needs and conservation frequently collide.
‘Refugee landscapes involve competing, sometimes conflicting land uses. Only an integrated landscape approach can reconcile them,’ Acanakwo says.
ICRAF’s role is particularly pivotal in identifying Indigenous tree species suited to the microclimates of northern Uganda, assessing soil fertility requirements and designing agroforestry models that restore ecological balance without undermining livelihoods. Their research guides how restoration unfolds on the ground – from the selection of shade trees for woodlots to windbreak species that protect crops, to multipurpose trees that replenish soils exhausted by years of intensive use.
Blending science and indigenous knowledge
Restoring tree cover in refugee-hosting districts begins with understanding what once grew there. After decades of land pressure, charcoal burning and farming expansion, many Indigenous species have become scarce, prompting the project to focus on reviving trees that historically belonged to each landscape. To guide this restoration, ICRAF combines modern scientific tools with local ecological memory.
Researchers draw on species databases that map the trees originally present in each ecosystem, while farmers contribute generations of Indigenous knowledge, from which trees provide the hottest charcoal to which species enrich soils or cast the best shade for crops. District technical teams then step in to validate suitability, ensuring that selected species align with local soil conditions, rainfall patterns and ongoing land-use pressures.
Acanakwo emphasises that the process is intentionally participatory, shaped jointly by science and the lived experience of the communities who depend on the land.
‘We are not imposing species; we are reviving what the landscape already knew,’ he says.
By rebuilding with trees that are ecologically appropriate and culturally familiar, the project ensures farmers adopt species that support both livelihoods and long-term landscape health.
Bringing climate-smart agroforestry
Abdullahi became one of the project’s model farmers in Koboko. CRS delivered seedlings directly to his homestead: 120 fruit trees, 800 woodlot species and 400 high-value crops, including cocoa
He embraced training on soil fertility, tree spacing, erosion control and integrating crops under shade.
Today, his 20-acre farm generates at least Shs2m in seasonal fruit sales and up to Shs80m in bumper years from mature fruit and timber. His produce reaches Koboko, Kampala and Juba.
He hopes the new seedlings will become a family inheritance:
‘These trees will educate my children and grandchildren,’ he told CRS field teams.
Abdullahi’s farm doubles as a learning site where neighbours, youth and farmers observe mulching, irrigation, pruning and mixed cropping techniques. His household reflects the wider project demographics: 28 per cent women and 26 per cent youth participation across registered farmers.
CRS plans to link farmers to processors, extension services, and financial institutions while strengthening market systems for high-value crops and small ruminants.
In Koboko, forest cover had dropped to 14 per cent five years ago.
District Forest Officer Ojia Gilbert said interventions like IFPA-CD are reversing losses: ‘This project is timely. It addresses climate change, land degradation and food security. Trees enhance soil fertility and help restore what we had lost.’