On a hot, quiet morning, Milly Akello tends to her water-stressed cocoa farm, sprouting
in her banana grove. A few kilometres, east of Lira City, Akello’s three-hectare parched garden, however, continues to thrive amid harsh weather conditions.
“It last rained here 21 days ago, but it almost rained yesterday. I see clouds forming up; there are signs
that it will rain soon,” says Akello, sweating profusely in the scorching sun.
A civil engineer by profession, Akello worked for the Ministry of Education and Sports, where she oversaw school construction projects across the country. Born in a large family of 13, Akello was lucky to go to school at the time most people in her community didn’t want girls to get an education.
“We were 5 girls and 8 boys. My mother again brought 9 other boys from her brothers-in-law to take
care of; it was really a big extended family, but I was lucky to study,” reflects Akello, who went to Adigo Primary School before joining St. Catherine Girls Secondary School in the current Lira City, where she completed her secondary cycle of education between 1988 and 1991.
Akello later joined the Uganda Technical College and graduated with a Diploma in Civil Engineering from 1991 to 1992, a career path that few women explored at that time. The following year, she enrolled for a Bachelor of Science in Building Economics at Kyambogo University, and later obtained a Postgraduate Diploma in Contract Management at Uganda Martyrs University.
“I got my first job in an Indian carpentry workshop, but my colleagues were unfortunate; they returned
home. The pay was little, but I was able to keep looking for more opportunities,” Akello said. She would later work for Pioneer Construction Company, Shell Petrol Station in Western Uganda and later for the Ministry of Education between 3001 to June 2026.
The family at stake
Amidst her career growth, Akello’s journey was fraught with complexities. She left her marriage after years of enduring domestic violence.
“I tried to hold [onto] my marriage, but I survived being murdered in 2019 and left. My husband, again, decided
to chase away my children, his own children! and settled with another wife,” She recounted.
In her late 40s, Akello had to carry the burden of educating her four children.
“What I had worked for two decades ago was to take care of these children and educate them; my
daughter will soon graduate in Medicine and Surgery; another boy has joined a university,” she noted.
Akello’s bitter taste of tree farming
Not long ago, Akello began planting trees. Initially, she started off with 2,600 pine, 2,000 tick and 1,000 eucalyptus trees– which cost her over 2.5 million shillings.
Her first attempt at tree planting was unsuccessful. Like most smallholder farmers in Northern Uganda, Akello struggled to look after her trees due to extreme weather conditions such as unreliable rainfall and extreme heat.
“People grazed animals on those trees; less than 20 pines survived, only 10 thick trees were left, and 50
eucalyptus trees survived. I abandoned the project,” Akello said, adding that she also began planting cocoa — which was male-dominated — to boost her financial proceeds in the long run.
From construction to climate-resilient farming
Her three-hectare farm in Angica Cell, called ‘Ebenezer’, derives its name owing to Akello’s bumpy journey over the past years.
On June 3, 2024, she planted her first batch of 800 cocoa trees, 600 more in 2025 and an additional 150 trees in 2026, though her self-care for a water-thirsty farm is reflected in her daily painful struggle.
“I have spent 12 million shillings on this farm, but I see the results are promising; the first lots are now
flowering,” Akello cheerfully observed.
Uganda continues experiencing a dry spell, as noticed by warm, scattered clouds and daily rising
temperatures, ranging from 27 Celsius to 32 Celsius, according to the Ministry of Water and
Environment.
The impact is correlated with varying rainfall distributions across the Country, with Northern Uganda in
particular receiving between 500 millimetres and 1,000 millimetres of the annual rainfall. Until recently, smallholder farmers in Northern Uganda were shifting away from traditional crop farming like maize, cassava, beans, soybeans and millet into perennial crops such as cocoa and coffee.
For a smallholder farmers like Akello, each week it fails to rain, and she has to spend 500, 000 shillings (about 137 US dollars) on water to irrigate thirsty crops.
“I water them twice a week the days rain doesn’t come; the water cost is much, but it’s something I am
doing to keep my crops alive,” Akello speaks with a mixed feeling of frustration and hope.
On a recent day, as farmers continued to wait for rain, Akello could be seen walking through her garden as she watered her crops.
South of Lira City, approximately 65 kilometres on the road, another eye-catching farm stands on 55-hectares of land at Abediworo village in Kole District. Unlike Akello’s daily collection of water from the neighbourhood, Tic Obedoin Integrated Farm has a high-power solar system of 40,000 litres’ capacity for supply on the farm.
Around each cocoa stem, plastic bottles are buried underground. Water drips through them to support the water-stressed cocoa plants. According to the farm manager, Moses Owino, he waters each cocoa plant after three days. Each ach plant is supported with at least 3 litres of water every week.
“Without such a water reservoir, this farm would need more than 37,000 litres of water in just one week to save the crops from withering,” Owino stated in a recent interview.
The farmers’ approach towards the harsh weather signals a smarter, yet simple, way to keep crops productive amid unpredictable rainfall patterns.
Owino noted that “we haven’t seen rain for 20 days this month, June. This is something unheard of
because it would rain almost every day around this time.”
On most farms, the cost of accessing water is a major challenge. Akello , for instance, spends about 500,000 Uganda shillings weekly to keep her plants alive as she waits for rain.
Cocoa was introduced in Uganda by the British in 1901, and to day it remains one of Uganda’s major cash crops. Its contribution to Uganda’s economy rose from 89.23 million dollars in 2019/2020 to approximately 215.11 million dollars in 2023/2024, derived from 38, 570 metric tons to 51,678 metric tonnes.
tons. With its global demand, the government set a target to increase production to 100,000 metric tons by 2030; the impact of climate change, resulting in prolonged droughts, floods and disease outbreaks, has become increasingly challenging for farmers.
Globally, the demand for cocoa products remains high. The cash crop is used mainly in chocolate and its semi-finished products such as cocoa powder and cocoa butter. Europe, Asia and North America offer such products huge markets. The global production of cocoa beans is estimated at 3 million metric tonnes, valued at 5.1 billion Dollars.
Today, the production has expanded to other regions such as West Nile, Acholi, Lango, Teso, Bugisu, and
Busoga, driven by government initiatives in research, capacity building, and awareness.
But the industry continues facing challenges, including low productivity, poor postharvest practices,
limited extension skills, insufficient research funding, limited value addition, and infrastructure deficits.
Amidst the challenges, the annual agriculture survey conducted between 2019 and May 2020, shows that only 2% of households in Uganda are using irrigation, while the majority of stallholder farmers rely on rain-fed agriculture.
Farmers connect
East of Lira City, standing in Boke Agali Ward, is both a cocoa farm and a mother nursery. Under its
umbrella company, Adaganii Farmers’ Limited, the farm becomes a pathway of hope for most farmers.
Established in 2021 through the project of climate-smart farming, the farm has raised 100,000 cocoa
seedlings between 2024 and 2025 and sold 48,000 to smallholder farmers in Northern Uganda.
The Director of the farm, Peter Paul Okullu, noted that the farm has established 10 satellite nursery beds to support farmers with quality seedlings, market linkages and advisory services towards the cocoa business.
Okullu noted that, while some of the farmers are already making money from the certified organic
production of cocoa, they will soon sign a 49-year contract with the company for carbon credit sales.
He revealed that the company has secured a market with the Icam Uganda Chocolate Company through its Icam Chocolate Uganda project to export cocoa to Italy.
The Director of Adaganii Farmers’ Limited, Peter Paul Okullu speaks in a recent intervirew of cocoa growing. Photo By Simon Wokorach.
Although the Chocolate Company has bid to export 5,000 tons of Uganda cocoa beans from smallholder farmers to Italy each year, the company can only afford 2,000 tonnes due to low production.
Martin Ogwang, who benefited from the farm, is set to expand his cocoa production from 6 hectares
currently to 10 hectares in the next three years.
“I got 2 million shillings last year from selling banana suckers. I planted them as cover crops to my young
cocoa plants; another farmer got 19 million shillings,” Ogwang stated in a recent interview.
While each plant produces over 10 kilograms of cocoa beans per year, and with each kilogram roughly
Sold locally at 20,000 shillings, Ogwang hopes to build is long term survival on cocoa.
“When you see the one tree giving me about 200,000 shillings each year, you can count about 4,000
trees I have on the farm. That’s the money I’m telling you.” He cheerfully stated.
At Koboko District, standing on 15 hectares in Kuniro village, Abuku Sub-County, Nature Harvest Farm
has trained about 800 outgrowers to upscale cocoa production across the West Nile Sub Region.
Architecture and Infrastructural Development Engineer, Henry Ellema, the Director of the farm, says
that each of those smallholder farmers is currently growing between one and two hectares of cocoa.
“We are working with cooperatives to incentivise these farmers, and we are beginning to see a shift
from old tobacco farming to a new cocoa industry,” Ellema revealed in an interview.
He noted that the company has set aside another 15 hectares of cocoa farm in a nearby Nyambiri village to provide space for innovation, soil testing, pest and disease control and cocoa bean fermentation.
“Cocoa needs intergenerational farming because it has a lifespan of over 50 years of harvesting, but the
youth are less than 25% of the 800 farmers we have registered.” He stated with frustration.
The Economic Policy Research Centre observed that, while Uganda’s population of young people is at
78%, their involvement in farming is declining, with an effect on food security across the Country.
The youthful farmers are still locked out of their immense potential for economic autonomy as access to
land, farm inputs and agricultural credits continues to impede their way from farming.
Researching and innovating farming matters
Amidst the rising unemployment and limited access to land for young people, Irene Kamayangi, an
agronomist with Plutus Coffee Uganda, sees new hope for young people within the agricultural
economy.
After graduating from Mbarara University of Science and Technology in 2021, even without much land,
Kamayangi says, researching agricultural innovation has both kept her going and impacted the farming
community.
“I learnt how soil testing is a big problem in Uganda. Farmers don’t test their soils before planting crops.
Some soils don’t need fertilisers, but they need specific crops. Farmers don’t know this,” She observed.
Kamayangi has been the leading face of her Company, which is developing biochar for supporting the
organic production of both coffee and cocoa in the Albertine and Lango sub-regions.
Biochar is a charcoal-like substance that is made by burning organic material from agricultural and
forestry wastes, also called biomass, in a controlled manner, according to Regeneration International.
If applied well, biochar can decrease groundwater pollution, lower the cost of water filtration, reduce
the amount of waste and increase profitability for farmers.
It further contributes to food security by increasing crop yields and retaining water in areas prone to
drought. For instance, on farms like Tic Obedoin, sunflower waste is being used as a soil amendment.
For Ellema “the young people are to drive innovation for supporting agriculture. They have the skills;
they have the energy that older people don’t have now. Let’s research and innovate farming.”
Kamayangi noted that, over the last year, the Company she leads has produced about 5,000 tons of
biochar, with plans to upscale production to about 50,000 tons annually in the subsequent years.
Solomon Etany, an Agronomist with Climate Smart Jobs, describes innovation of that nature as the right
approach for self-reliance and to find solutions to the changing weather to maintain crop production.
He adds, “It’s a premium carbon credit technology because one tonne of biochar earns you between 100 and 200 US dollars (between 360,000 and 736,000 shillings.”
According to Etany, for every ton of biochar applied to the soil, two tons of carbon dioxide are reduced
from the atmosphere and locked into the soil, which saves the earth from warming up.
While carbon dioxide is locked in the soil, slowly, biochar begins to dissolve and again mixes up with the
soil to support other living organisms (microorganisms) in the soil to complement soil structures.
He said biochar’s ability to enrich soil fertility and reducing heavily dependent on chemical fertilisers is
one such promising technology tool that stallholder farmers can adopt for reforming agriculture.
“There are farmers’ organisations which are now registering farmers who are growing coffee and cocoa
using biochar to enrol them on carbon credit, where they will be able to earn money alongside their
crops,” he said.
Currently, Palladium, through its Climate Smart Jobs, is implementing a five-year climate-smart farming
program in Northern Uganda, targeting 130,000 households across the region.
Jacob Olweny, the Regional Manager of Climate Smart Jobs in Acholi Sub-Region, is hopeful that supporting smallholder farmers to survive climate shocks is the right approach for addressing food insecurity.
Working with farmer group enterprises, he said, the smallholder farmers can now access farm inputs like seeds, fertilisers, and farming technologies closer to their areas.
Through a co-founding project, he said, the farmers’ group contributes 30% for supporting their
business, while Climate Smart Jobs funds the additional cost of 70% for setting up the enterprise.
Once the business begins making money, the group then pays back 50% of the ‘refundable grant’, which
is then taken to support other group members.
“We want to turn farming into a profitable business, and because the project must live beyond our
support, we give them a refundable grant. This is sustainability,” Olweny further explained.
The Gulu City Mayor, Labeja Julius Gunya, is optimistic that with the right innovation and research in
farming, household crop production will increase and sustain the markets.
“We need mathematics to farm, and the huge market we have is to drive the anger to work hard and
the anger to build our relationship with business people in South Sudan,” Gunya urged.
He added, “There are many hotels in and around Murchison Falls National Park who are farming inside
the Park, and where do the hotels get tomatoes from?”Let’s sustain the market and avoid imports.”
He noted that, while most of the smallholder farmers in the region carry the burden of accessing
agricultural inputs and marketing, cooperatives will help them achieve higher dividends from
production.
While climate change continues to expose farmers to climate-related risks, the Ministry of Agriculture is accelerating investment in irrigation and water for production to reduce dependence on rainfall.
Under agro-industrialisation, the Ministry of Finance has allocated 2.26 trillion shillings for the
2026/2027 financial year.
The fund, among others, is to support irrigation, water for production, processing, market access,
extension services, research, innovation, post-harvest handling and storage.
A similar program on agricultural credit facility also received 47.68 billion shillings, while 1.35 trillion
shillings have been disbursed to over 14,000 farmers in the previous years to upscale solar power
irrigation.
Today, smallholder farmers like Akello are progressively adopting new innovations, among others, such
as watering of crops, embracing perennial crops, mechanisation, and early planting to sustain
production.
This story was done with grant support from the Northern Uganda Media Club. It was slightly edited and was initially published by InfoNile.
