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As the world grapples with the changing climate, part of the answer can be found on small farms in some of the remotest villages in eastern Uganda. This is where farmers have deployed simple technologies to get better yields and earnings. Gerald Tenywa engaged the farmers recently and now writes.

Nalimawa village in Kamuli district is waking up and has started dreaming big: It wants to become a sustainable village where incomes increase without depleting the environment.

Betty Tigawalana, a resident of Nalimawa, has taken a step into the future. She now earns three times her previous income from agriculture.

She also turns cow dung into biogas, which she uses for lighting and cooking. Tigawalana also ensures her surplus milk is not wasted away, as was the case before; she processes the milk into yoghurt. This has come as a result of ensuring that waste is not wasted.

In addition, she increases productivity where more yields are harvested without increasing the size of the land, which is part of the solution to sustain the growing global human population.

As Tigawalana produces biogas for cooking, she has spared millions of trees, and the by-products of biogas have provided good manure for the land. After harvesting, the residues from the crops, such as maize stalks, are used for mulching to ensure that water is kept in the soil.

“We wanted to fight poverty by earning a better income,” Betty Tigawalana says, adding that this also means that they have to overcome crop failure caused by erratic rainfall.

How does climate-smart agriculture work?



The fight against the twin problems of poverty and climate change started with looking after their biggest asset, land in Nalimawa and the neighbouring village.

“We dug holes where we put manure and later the seed for different crops,” Tigawalana told New Vision Online in an interview.

As the rains come, the holes with organic manure trap and hold more water than the previous approaches to cultivation, where holes are not used without manure and water runs away quickly.

This is being done collectively by Tigawalana and her neighbours after forming a local network known as Bandera.

The Bandera Farmers Network in Kamuli was established in 1995 by a group of seven members to fight poverty and climate change. By 2020, the group had grown to over 80 members, growing various crops. They use conservation agriculture approaches such as trenches and planting basins to harvest surface water and enhance food and income security.

Every member of Bandera belongs to a particular crop value chain, such as maize, citrus, and mangoes. The group is intending to establish a milling plant as well as a fruit factory to add value to their fruit products.

Nalimawa inspiring neighbourhood

A similar “revolution” is taking place in Nkondo village, Buyende district, where climate-smart agriculture is being perfected to shield farmland from the changing climate.

“We have food security and income security,” says Kirijjo, Muhammed Kirojjo, the chairperson of Nkondo Multi-Purpose Rural Produce, adding that they have quadrupled their production.

Muhamed Kirijjo, the chairperson of Nkondo Youth in Buyende. (Photo by Gerald Tenywa)

In one acre of conventional agriculture, according to Kirijjo, the farmers used to harvest seven bags of 120 kg each in one acre. This has increased to 30 bags under the new technology.

(Photo by Gerald Tenywa)

In addition to climate-smart agriculture, the youth group in Nkondo has established a cooperative and a milling plant, which adds value to their maize, according to Kibikyo Awali, a local resident.

Milling plant. (Photo by Gerald Tenywa)

He says that they have increased their participation in the value chain of maize, which has helped them to become food secure and also earn from better markets. “The middlemen always exploit farmers when they are buying perishable products,” says Awali. 

UNDP, COMESA promote CSA

It is true that humanity is waging war on nature. This is absorbing the blows and striking back, and it is already doing so with devastating effects.

According to a report by UNDP, “this is evident in the glaring effects of climate change, including rising temperatures, prolonged droughts, floods that affect crop production and lead to crop failure, low yields, loss of income to farmers, food insecurity, hunger, and starvation.”

These occurrences affect the achievement of sustainable development goals, particularly efforts to end poverty and hunger. It is against this background that the UNDP, the Ministry of Agriculture, Animal Industry, and Fisheries, supported by the Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa (COMESA), started “Enhancing Resilience of Agricultural Landscapes and Value Chains in Eastern Uganda."

This initiative promotes climate-smart agricultural (CSA) best practices that farmers can adopt to create resilience under such conditions.

The initiative benefited farmers in the districts of Kamuli, Kaliro, Buyende, Bugiri, Busia, Budaka, and Namutumba between 2018 and 2021, according to a UNDP Uganda report.  It was seeking to increase land productivity through promoting conservation of soil and water, building the capacities of farmers, school pupils, and extension officers at local government, strengthening resilience to climate change, and increasing the number of farmers using CSA practices, according to UNDP’s report.

In Uganda, the agricultural sector contributes 24% of the gross domestic product and provides 64% of employment, according to UNDP. But agriculture, which is highly sensitive to climate change, is succumbing to frequent floods and prolonged droughts that cause farmers to lose their crops and livestock.

COMESA countries

Cattle corridor

Kamuli and Buyende are sitting along the cattle corridor, which runs from north-eastern Uganda across parts of eastern Uganda and central Uganda to southern Uganda. This is where the impacts of climate change have had negative impacts on the production of crops as well as livestock.

Climate change defined

According to UN, climate change refers to long-term shifts in temperatures and weather patterns. Such shifts can be natural, due to changes in the sun’s activity. But since the 1800s, human activities have been the main driver of climate change, primarily due to the burning of fossil fuels like coal.

The burning of fossil fuels generates greenhouse gas emissions that act like a blanket wrapped around the earth, trapping the sun’s heat and raising temperatures.

Rich and poor countries have to cooperate and cut emissions. However, rich countries have polluted the world and have a bigger responsibility than the poor countries.

Globally, countries agreed to cut emissions in the Paris Agreement of 2015. Under this agreement, all countries committed to reducing their emissions and working together to adapt to the impacts of climate change, according to a UN report.

The Paris Agreement provides a framework for fighting climate change. The implementation of the Paris Agreement is also essential for the achievement of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). There are 17 SDGs, which aim at economic prosperity, social inclusion, and environmental sustainability.

Back home, Nalimawa and Nkondo in eastern Uganda, as well as the COMESA region, are threatened by the impacts of climate change. This is because Africa is at the interaction of multiple stressors, including low adaptive capacity, weak systems and governance, poverty, and dependence on climate-vulnerable activities, according to the COMESA strategy on climate change 2020-2030.

“The ever-increasing threat of unpredictable and extreme weather impacts the COMESA sub-regions differently, adding a layer of complexity to the crisis. Climate change is robbing the future of today’s children and youth, who are especially vulnerable,” states COMESA.

COMESA adds: “Women are also affected disproportionately due to their higher levels of poverty, lack of education, and low involvement in decision-making processes. They make up 70% of people below the poverty line. Traditional women's responsibilities are vulnerable to climate change as their sustenance depends on environmental resources like water, firewood, and other forest products, as well as growing and preparing food”.

What is taking place at Nalimawa in Kamuli and Nkondo in Buyende shows that the hallmark of fighting climate change and restoring landscapes in eastern Uganda and the rest of the COMESA region lies in investing in people. This is also bringing home the life-standing slogan: Think globally, act locally.

What do the experts say?

Stephen Muwaya, a consultant in agriculture and rural development, says: “There are young people, many of them not well educated in the rural community, who are becoming organized and productive with better skills and technology. This is helping their communities become resilient”.

Muwaya added: “They started with basins and moved on with mechanization or rippers. The use of high-quality seed has also increased, as has the reduction of post-harvest losses through better storage and milling of the grain. This is a step into agri-industrialisation”.

Grace Bwengye, national agriculture planner for the National Planning Authority, says soil is the mother of plants because it provides better nutrition. So, investments improving soil health are welcome given that our farmers are not rich. This means leaving no one behind.”