Failed harvest threatens local farmers of Kiryandongo refugee settlement

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By Nicholas Shawn Mugarura, Communications Assistant at CAFOMI

Oloya Philip David fled his war-torn homeland with nothing but his family and memories of his father’s fields in South Sudan. He was just 11 years old when they fled to Uganda, which has been his home for the last 30 years.

 “I have grown to love Uganda. When we came in the 90s land allocated to us would be enough for the family until the 2013 and 2016 crises, which led to a huge refugee influx and the resizing of land allocated to us by the Office of the Prime Minister in Uganda (OPM). Then, OPM would allocate one acre per individual in the family, now they give the entire family a quarter of an acre regardless of the family size,” Oloya narrated.

He joined a few local farmers to rent land for agriculture at Didi’s ranch, a private ranch bordering Kiryandongo refugee settlement. In the last four years, the harvest has been meagre, leaving him counting losses. The harvest is only barely enough to feed his family of 12 individuals.

Access to land is a very big challenge for refugees and Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) in Uganda. Those who would love to make an extra shilling from farming have to rent land, expensively. An acre in the neighbouring ranches around Kiryandongo refugee settlement is rented at a minimum of shillings 120,000. The cost of inputs and labour is also too expensive for the refugee,s who seldom earn money in a month.

The refugees have been able to rent land outside the settlement, but this option is slowly dwindling. Landlords in the area are rehabilitating their plots, developing paddocks, and fencing off their land. This has significantly reduced the amount of land that the refugees can rent. What has for long been a lifeline for the refugees is slowly diminishing. Refugees may have to find land to rent in other parts of the district, but OPM and Kiryadongo DLG will need to constructively engage private landowners for this to happen.

Kiryandongo is a diverse area with many nationalities and ethnic groups, including refugees, IDPs and nationals. In 2010 government settled the Bududa landslide/flood survivors in the area.

Vincent Namukowa, a 57-year-old survivor of the landslides, is also a farmer in Kiryandongo. His household was among the 603 that were settled by the government from Bududa.

The IDPs also struggle to get ample land for farming, and therefore have to rent it. Initially, each household was allocated 2.5 acres of land regardless of the family size. Fourteen years later, the population has tripled on the same 2.5 acres of land.

“We request for support to rent more land for farming and also train us on better ways of farming. Due to the drought, farmers had to painfully burn down their crops which had dried out, they are counting huge loses.” Namukowa said.

The unpredictable weather, especially severe drought, has rendered Kiryandongo vulnerable to food shortages, yet the area is just 11 Km away from the Nile River. Perhaps it is time to start considering using the Nile as a major source of water for irrigation.

Development partners, government and private sector need to support the local farmers with new and modern farming practices that are drought resilient and climate smart. This will improve livelihoods and also promote peaceful coexistence.

Sustainable access to energy is also a big challenge. The high refugee numbers have led to the cutting down of trees to construct houses, for wood fuel and to open additional farmland. It is time for the emergence of strategic partnerships with private sector (ranchers and wanainchi) neighbouring the settlement to plant trees to increase forest cover.

The Government must be commended for rural electrification. However, while the electricity grid to the Kiryandongo sugar factory at Kimogora passes through it, there is no electricity connection to the refugee settlement (except Panyadoli HC IV), Bududa IDP settlement or the neighbouring ranches.

Access to electricity would not only bring clean energy to households but also boost production and cottage industries, which will create jobs for the unemployed or underemployed youth.

In 2010, Government deployed machinery for making Interlocking Stabilised Soil Block (ISSB), which technology offers an environmentally low-impact alternative to fired bricks, which require a lot of wood fuel, most of which comes from cutting down woodlots and trees.

ISSB technology was used to build a few houses for the IDPs, the police station and the barracks but has now been parked and rusting away. This machinery could be repaired and handed over to Youth groups to continue producing building blocks which can then be sold to the private sector/ranchers in Kiryandongo and surrounding areas.

Care and Assistance for Forced Migrants (CAFOMI) attended the World Refugee Day national commemoration event on 20^th June 2025, hosted at the Kiryandongo refugee settlement. All the speakers, including the refugee representatives, praised Uganda’s solidarity with refugees through its “open door refugee policy”.

The policy is praised for promoting self-reliance and other long-term solutions for refugees. Despite Uganda’s generosity, the humanitarian sector has faced acute reduction in donor funding and this has placed an increased burden on the government, the refugees and their hosts to cover the costs of basic needs.

The severe funding shortfalls have also forced the UNWFP to cut refugee food assistance, and this has exacerbated the situation, leading to starvation and malnutrition.

While the forced migrants need support to attain self-reliance, it is important that primary causes of the refugee influx into Uganda, primarily violence, conflict, and war are addressed to allow the refugees return to their respective countries of origin.