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UGA08 - Foundations for Farming Uganda & Sth Sudan: Partnership Reports



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Report Date: August 13, 2021

Report on Foundations for Farming Training at Palorinya Refugee Settlement in Moyo District

difficult tripRecent Events

Background

Moyo is situated 7 kms from the county of Kajokeji in South Sudan. It hosts South Sudanese refugees at Palorinya Refugee Settlement which consists of refugees from Yei and Kajokeji district.

The journey to the Palorinya Refugee Settlement took several days from Jinja with some breaks. We started out on Wednesday 4th August and spent the night in Gulu. On the 5th we travelled through Pabor but found it rough going as the road had a lot of streams to cross. We passed through the Pagerinya Refugee Settlement in Adjumani district to meet one of our representative Foundations for Farming extension workers and finally reached Moyo at 6 pm after waiting for the ferry which we boarded at 5 pm on the 5th August 2021.

training sessionOn the 6th August we went to the camp and met with the farmers. We guided them through the principles of  Foundations for Farming and encouraged them to take the farming principles very seriously and to work hard in their gardens. The participants included both men and women. They greatly appreciated the efforts made to improve on their lives through FfF.

We gave each of the 30 farmers a hoe and vegetable seeds which included cabbages, tomatoes, eggplants and sweet pepper.

 

Challenges

tough tripThe major challenge we experienced was transport costs which were very high. Due to COVID-19 it was risky to use transport with more than three people. We therefore had to use a car from Jinja which had a consumption of more than 150 litres of fuel to cover the return trip. Palorinya Refugee Camp is hard to reach including crossing through rocky areas and is situated close to the river Nile overseeing the mountain ranges of South Sudan. 

While on the return trip a tyre burst along Moyo-Arua Road and the engine of the vehicle went silent in the Murchison Falls Game Park, 5 kms to the Arua-Gulu junction at Karuma, Apac district.

 

Plans for the Future

There is now a need for the funds for the next four trainings as the planned dates have been affected by the lockdown therefore I am suggesting to run trainings on a weekly basis instead of every two weeks.

We are approaching the last planting season of the year so the next training should be run timely to catch up in time to plant.