The Sebei Sub-region is renowned for its intercropping practices, where farmers cultivate a diverse range of crops in two distinct seasons. In the first season, they grow maize, onions, beans, cabbage, and Irish potatoes, while in the second season, they plant cash crops such as barley and sorghum.
While barley typically takes about three months to grow and mature, from planting to harvesting, fertiliser provides the essential nutritional supplements that help the plants to mature and stay healthy.
On a rainy day in Benet Sub-county, Kween District, members of the Ganan Farmers Group, led by their chairperson, Evelyn Kabuno, are producing biofertilizers and biopesticides for their barley gardens.
The group is part of the 38 farmer groups that form the Elgon Pamoja Project, run by Aid Environment with financial support from Uganda Breweries Limited (UBL).
‘Most of the materials we use to make the biofertiliser and biopesticides are locally sourced. For the biofertiliser, we use tisonia (wild sunflower) leaves, phytolacca dodecandra (African soapberry) leaves, wood ash, crushed stone dust, and water,’ Kabuno explains.
The leaves are cut into small pieces and mixed in a basin with the other materials, including water.
The mixture goes through a fermentation period of two weeks. Every two days, the mixture is stirred as it is allowed to ferment.
‘After two weeks, we sieve the mixture to get the liquid biofertiliser we spray on our barley crops. In the spraying cans, we mix a ratio of one litre of fertiliser to four litres of water,’ Kabuno adds.
To get biopesticides, the group mixes tisonia leaves, chopped onions, small pieces of blue soap, crushed red pepper, and water. The mixture is also fermented for two weeks before a liquid pesticide is extracted.
Trainings in conservation
Besides embracing organic farming, Aid Environment has offered the farmers training in making soil and water conservation structures such as trenches. In most gardens, the trenches are about two feet by two feet, and they are constructed 10 metres apart.
Benet Sub-county’s agricultural officer Amos Mali says the hilly region offers rich agriculture because of its fertile soils. However, during the rainy season, the challenge is that top soils are washed away.
‘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.
Training farmers also reduces the costs of production since they make their own fertiliser and pesticides, as opposed to buying them at high prices. Two weeks ago, the project donated tree seedlings to the different farmers’ groups, with the hope that planting trees will help hold the soil together and reduce the impact of soil erosion during the rainy season.
Eliakim Kibet, the project manager, says the Elgon Pamoja Project is operating in barley and sorghum-growing sub-counties in the four districts of Kween, Kapchorwa, Bukwo, and Bulambuli.
‘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. Currently, we are working with 750 farmers in 38 farmer groups,’ he notes.
The project has also trained farmers in financial literacy and in the construction of biodigesters and rainwater harvesting tanks. Yudaya Annita Munanda, the regional agronomy manager for the Mt Elgon Region at UBL, says the company collects up to 5,000 metric tonnes of barley, 1,500 metric tonnes of sorghum, and 5,000 metric tonnes of corn from the region.
‘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,’ she says.
Clean cooking Sophie Chepkwuri, a member of Kapchesiy Farmers Group, is also a barley grower. She praises the project for helping her to construct a biodigester at her home in Kapchesiy Cell, Kapyesi Ward, East Division, 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 the day’s meals. Another challenge was that in the rainy season, it was not easy to light wet wood. Today, however, all I need is Napier grass, which I grow behind my house,’ she explains.
The harvested Napier grass is fed into a machine that cuts it into small pieces. The grass forms the bulk of the food for Chepkwuri’s four cows.
Sometimes, the grass is mixed with desmodium.
‘We also feed the cows on banana suckers, matooke peels, and maize brand mixed with rice brand. We feed them three times a day, because the more food they get, the more dung we harvest from them,’ Chepkwuri says.
Every day, in the feeding chamber of the biodigester, two basins of cow dung and four jerrycans of water are mixed and stirred.
‘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,’ the farmer says.
After the mixture of dung and water is properly stirred, it is released into the digester, where it is converted into methane gas, says Dismas Cheptoek, the regenerative agricultural expert for Aid Environment.
‘The digester can absorb 4,000 litres of cow dung mixture. It contains large quantities of bacteria that break down the cow dung to methane gas. The gas passes through the valve and flows to the kitchen,’ he says.
The residue cow dung is pushed into the expunction chamber, then into the bioslurry chamber.
‘What is sent to the bioslurry chamber is what we use to fertilise the soils in our coffee and banana plantations and barley gardens. Before we started using this biofertiliser, the banana plantation produced small-sized bunches that I sold at Shs15,000. Today, however, the yield has improved, and I sell a bunches at Shs25,000 or Shs30,000,’ Chepkwuri notes.
In her indoor kitchen, Chepkwuri uses a double hot plate, connected to the biodigester, to cook her family’s meals. It is fast and clean cooking.
‘The only challenge for me in the entire biodigester system is the amount of water I have to use. In my home area, water flows from our taps for only two hours a day. If I miss out on those two hours, I have to send a boda boda rider to the spring to fetch water for me. This is very expensive,’ she says.
Biodigesters have helped to reduce the pressure on the environment since fewer people are cutting down trees for firewood. They have also helped to improve soil health through the biofertiliser they release.
‘The total cost of the system is around Shs2.5m. Through a co-financing model, we have supported farmers to construct biodigesters, with a 40 percent subsidy. The farmer contributes 60 percent of the total cost in the form of locally available materials,’ Cheptoek says.
Rainwater harvesting
While Chepkwuri’s dream is to install a rainwater harvesting tank in the compound, Mary Chemutai, a resident of Kaplakatet Upper Village, Kaproron Town Council, Kween District, is living the dream.
The Elgon Pamoja Project supported the barley farmer with the construction of a water tank in a co-financing model.
‘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 harvested water also helped fast-track the construction of a commercial building 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 can do a lot of work at home because we no longer waste time walking to the spring,’ she adds.
Rainwater harvesting has also stemmed the soil erosion that was occurring in the gardens behind her home and provided a constant water source for the family.
Barley farming
In 2024, many farmers in Sebei Sub-region started switching to barley growing in search of better profits. Some of the farmers abandoned Irish potatoes for barley growing, which is a raw material in beer making. They farmers said the cereal is profitable and that it matures within a short time.
Currently, there are more than 13,000 farmers of barley and sorghum in the district of Kween, Bukwo and Kapchorwa which make up the sub-region. Barley has two seasons, the first one starts from March-May and the second from August-October.
Currently, each bag can fetch more Shs190,000. Each kilogramme of quality barley goes for around Shs1,900.
Extension workers support farmers with knowledge and skills, with Uganda Breweries Limited (UBL) partnering in training programmes. Ms Clare Cherop, an extension officer-in-charge of Kapchorwa, says they mobilise and train farmers.
‘We are skilling farmers to produce quality cereals and also training them on harvesting and post-harvest handling,” she says.
Ms Cherop adds that they ensure farmers are provided with the necessary facilities to produce clean cereals that meet brewing standards.
The farmers, however, say they face challenges of poor road network that hampers transportation of their harvests.