In 2011, Rose Lanyero, 59, a former market vendor in Gulu City made a decision to relocate to the village where she bought land in Gwengdiya Parish, Awach Subcounty in Gulu District.
“For over a decade now, I have been a supplier of different fruits, and grains not only to those in business but also my neighbours here,” a jolly Lanyero said.
In her pieces of land, she has fruits of different kinds, grains like sorghum, pigeon pea, and millets as well as goats, piggery, cows and poultry.
During the dry season, she relies on drip-irrigation using plastic bottles which are filled with water and put under each of the passion fruits, eggplants, and bananas so that they withstand the drought.
She also has a micro water dam which is used to grow greens and vegetables.
From what she gets after the sales of her farm produce, Lanyero is able to send her two grandchildren to schools in Gulu and Kampala.
According to her, she is working hard because she wants to leave a “Will” to her two grandchildren so that they have where to start from in years to come.
Lanyero on climate-smart agriculture
Lanyero does all these on a four-acre piece of land, relying on the concept being promoted by President Yoweri Museveni as a pet project.
The four-acre model is seen as the magic bullet for smallholder farmers who constitute the majority of the farming population in Uganda but are most prone to the consequences of climate and land fragmentation.
The model envisions that a household with at least four acres of arable land should partition it into four whereby one acre is set aside for a perennial crop, and another acre for planting pasture. The other acre should be set aside for growing seasonal quick-maturing food crops and the final acre for settlements with backyard projects such as poultry, piggery or fish ponds for those who have lands near wetlands.
It is no surprise that Walter Okello, a resident of Laminto Parish, Paicho Subcounty in Gulu District started large-scale farming in 2014 and is nosediving to four acres so as to manage comfortably.
In 2022, he injected UGX.12 Million in planting 30 acres of soybeans with the hope of making profits.
However, drought brought him to zero since he did not reap any good yield.
Having heard and witnessed the successes of the four-acre model, Okello plans to resume farming next year with proper planning on four acres, employing modern agricultural practices that conserve the environment.
Dr Alfred Obia, soil scientist, climate-smart agriculture and a lecturer at Gulu University Faculty of Agriculture and Environment discloses that the primary target in climate-smart agriculture is having good yield and the ability to produce food amidst climate change challenges.
He added: “To achieve our primary target, we need to carefully use fertilizer, high-yielding crop variety, general crop management, drought tolerant variety, and mulching to increase yield per unit area.”
“In future, when climate change continues, we might be forced to revert to our drought tolerant traditional crops like sorghum, pigeon pea and millets to achieve our primary target of producing and having food amidst climate change challenges” argues Dr Obia.
Last week, the Ministry of Agriculture, Animal Industry and Fisheries (MAAIF) secured over USD 350 million in funding from the World Bank to support and commercialize agriculture in 69 districts across the country.
The support, named the Uganda Climate Smart Agricultural Transformation Project, will enable sustainable development through key investments in crops, fisheries, livestock, and infrastructure in selected areas.
The six-year project will be implemented across 13 agroecological zones of the country with climate change vulnerability and poverty levels including 7 refugee hosting districts.
David Lukungu resident of Wilul Village, Omel Subcounty, Gulu District who started practising a four-acre model in 2020 told Radio Rupiny that he earns about UGX.36 Million from his farm annually.
Beginning with only UGX.500,000 as his capital in 2019, Lukungu now earns some good millions monthly from his bananas, cassava, fruits, poultry and hybrid pigs, all of which are resilient to abnormalities of the weather conditions.
“I have one acre of Matooke with four different varieties (Mpologoma, Mbwazirume, Musakala and Kisansa), one acre of cassava (TME-19), all these varieties are tolerant to any weather condition and bring me some good money”
Lukungu acknowledges that unfavourable weather conditions such as drought have remained a big threat to most farmers who rely on only rain. He believes once his macro irrigation project starts to work, it will help to address some of those issues faced by colleagues.
At the moment, he uses mulching, organic manure, minimum soil disturbance, and intercropping (cassava-maize) which help him to overcome the challenge of too much sunshine or rain
“It is not the size of the land which makes one rich but rather employing the correct approach to climate resilient and smart agriculture that matters,” says Lukungu.
Out of the 11 Sub counties in Gulu District, it is only Paicho(5), Awach(3), and Omel(2) are in the four-acre model while Eight (8) others are either doing farming for consumption or commercial purposes.
This story was produced with support from InfoNile in Partnership with Palladium under the climate smart agriculture reporting project.
