Foundations for Farming Training Report from Thomas Lubari

Recent Events

Introduction

The Foundations for Farming training for the 2024 first season training is intended for ten districts comprising of eight refugee camps and two districts for local communities. The first trainings (3) were completed prior to Christmas 2023.

The districts are scattered from each other ranging from 600kms from Kampala to between 80 and 180kms from Kampala.

The training started last year close to the third week in Koboko district with beneficiaries consisting of 80% refugees. The attendance exceeded the targeted number of 30 farmers. However, all were fed and are committed to transforming their lives though engaging themselves in agriculture production targeting high value crops and food crops to improve on their lives.

The next training was at Imvepi refugee settlement in Terego district. The training went so well with farmers that consisted of men and women. The refugees were so excited and promised to dedicate their lives to hard work as written in Proverbs 14:23 "All hard work brings a profit, but mere talk leads only to poverty."

The training was to enable refugees and local communities to prepare earlier by building compost manure heaps that take 8 weeks, a period that takes them close to the beginning of the first rains in March. 

Current State of the Beneficiaries

The refugees, especially the able ages that include youths and the able parents, have been victims of the cut down rations with some completely deleted from the monthly food ration with the exception of the elderly, disabled and orphans or the unaccompanied. This is causing huge problems in the camps.

Food remains a necessity for the survival of many families and as a means to generate income among the farming communities. Almost 100% of the refugees are from farming backgrounds although some are associated with urban life in their country of origin (South Sudan).

While the majority are interested in farming, they are limited in opportunities due to the agencies that work with refugee farming groups. Hence, they cannot access land easily due to the cost of hiring from the host communities. Host communities often take away land from the refugees after seeing some progress in the refugees especially in their agriculture activities. Some refugees feel reluctant to engage in any sustainable livelihood activities due to severe trauma that causes lack of concentration and loss of motivation to work. 

Life Improvements Due to Engagement in Foundations for Farming 

There is great improvement in the livelihood of refugees who are engaged in Foundations for Framing practices. In Bidibidi refugee camp, the group of farmers trained have engaged in group farming (cooperative initiative) and planted 8 acres of cassava ready for harvest within the year. They joined together as a Foundations for Farming group and decided to rent a field where they planted the cassava. They have become examples for the community to emulate.

Current Issues and Challenges

Trauma among the refugees causes lack and loss of concentration to work. Many refugees spend their time in mere talk leading to increased lack. The number of refugees involved in sustainable livelihood activities are limited as the few agencies involved in these projects have limited numbers of beneficiaries. Thus, the majority are not included, with some choosing not to live at the refugee camps as intended but to live in the administrative towns of the host districts and only have structures at the camp to enable them to receive their food ration, hence becoming urban refugees. This kind of life has not eliminated them from facing the challenges facing refugees.

Connecting with the refugees has increasingly become expensive. The estimates for transport included in the budget were too low as costs of hire of transport to the refugee camps has become so expensive, e.g. from Koboko to Imvepi it has become nearly $100 per trip. With two trainings it becomes more expensive given personal accommodation and feeding costs. Also, the roads were so rough and very dusty forcing us to wear masks. This experience would be worse to a new person especially in the dry season.

Our efforts to engage previously trained Foundations for Farming extension workers who themselves live at the different refugee camps was greatly effective as they were able to take sessions at the trainings and we gave them a small facilitation fee. We too thought to have T-shirts for the trainers to wear during training sessions.

While the farmers could engage seriously in the activities of Foundations for Farming, most of them are discouraged by the lack of visitation by the representative staff of Foundations for Farming whom in this case is the extension worker. Due to distance and lack of bicycles for visitation of the farmers, it has greatly affected the farmers commitment as they feel more encouraged when visited on a regular basis. They compare the Foundations for Farming programme to other programmes whose workers (agents) have a stable oversight over their partners thus increasing commitment on both sides. 

Plans for the Future

Once we have received the funds, we will undertake training in the remaining four camps and two local community areas of Kamuli and Buvuma. (Kamuli is northwest of Jinja and Buvuma is an island in Lake Victoria. The needs there are great.)

Farmers will receive inputs after completion of the trainings. Plans to support farmers access land from the host communities are undergoing through local arrangements between refugees and the locals with immediate payments. Although other places have a higher cost of land rent, we encourage refugees to keep at a standard as per our budget of approximately US$15 per a quarter of an acre.