Lango Organic Project
For more than 10 years we have been running a large scale farmer project called “Lango Organic Project” (see map) in the Central North of Uganda as a joint venture with our affiliated companies Bo Weevil (U) Ltd and Bo Weevil BV. More than 20,000 Ugandan farmer households deliver their cash crops and participate in our sustainable business. Most conventional farm commodities in Uganda are cultivated “organic by default” and the farmers do not receive much support from merchants and middle men who do not invest in the production areas.
Our registered producers are converted to a more sustainable form of cultivation and enhance productivity by means of improved farm management, profitable intercropping and the use of effective inputs that can be sustained by the small holders without depending on expensive inputs from outside.
However, the registered organic farmers also receive a premium price for three major cash crops (sesame, cotton and chili peppers) and a package of hand outs at every level of production (spray pumps, planting seeds, organic pesticides, demo’s, pest monitoring programs, tools, solar heaters etc). Purchase of all three cash crops is guaranteed. Moreover, our presence in the surrounding areas also stimulates local merchants to pay a higher price for the same products because they try to keep up with our price levels.
All growers in the program are connected to a sustainable market and we link our farmers’ groups to different support programs. One such program was a large scale demonstration and training outreach that ran until 2009 in conjunction with the AgroEco Louis Bolk Institute. Through this, 63 trained Site Coordinators were each able to train 10 Lead Farmers, each of whom had a one acre demo plots, ultimately through scaling up directly benefiting 6300 Collaborating Farmers. The focus was on farmer adoption of proven husbandry methods using improved communication channels, relevant extension methods and farmer participatory techniques to allow for adaptation to meet household resources, especially in regards to labor.
- Farm Management
- Farmer adoption, proven husbandry methoss, improved communication channel and househo resources (labor)
- Monitoring, evaluation and reporting methods
- organic production techniques, pesticide formulations, fertilization
- ICS compliance and marketing, business admisnistration, quality management & control
Our projects have resulted in more income for each farmer, better development and steady business for all. The standard of living has improved dramatically. The net farm income has increased through premium prices and through the combined efforts of our “Farmers Field School” approach with support of the Dutch government, Danida, Hivos and the Triodos Sustainable Fund. People have more money to spend and this has resulted in better quality of housing, better communication facilities, better healthcare and availability of good medicines. Most children go to school now that the parents can afford the school fees.
Our office is located in Lira town with 15 staff of which 10 are field based agricultural extension workers that give farmers the required trainings and advice. They register and inspect all farmers each year and also inspect each field and prepare maps of fields, villages and Primary Societies and connect all these data to area maps. During the marketing season the FO’s are responsible for monitoring every organic store on the organic conformities, documentation and aspects of quality.
The program operates in three zones: Aromo zone with 6000 farmers, Apala zone with 6000 farmers and Dokolo zone with 9000 farmers. These zones are situated in the districts of Lira and Dokolo, 350 km North of Kampala. The program covers over 600 villages and 45 stores where farmers can bring their certified organic produce. Each store is run by two to four people who are paid on a commission basis.
In the communities such a job gives status and extra income and therefore serious campaigns and elections are held in order to acquire these positions. Our office provides training to each store official on record keeping, marketing and accountability with special emphasis on traceability and organic conformities.
Farmers choose their own Primary Society representatives who have regular meetings with the farmers and with the management of Shares! and Bo Weevil on issues like requirements, challenges, performances, marketing and prices, production enhancement and promotion activities.
On top of the many hand outs and support programs we also give out prizes every year to the best performing farmers and Primary Societies such as ox ploughs, bicycles, tools, radios, weighing scales, t-shirts. This serves as an important extra stimulant to improve the general performance of the program.
Most farmers have to fall back on family labor to cultivate their land as hired labor is expensive. A family can cultivate a limited number of acres only and in order to expand cultivation and increase the farmer’s income we plan to offer a responsible form of mechanization using light weight tractors to avoid compaction, and zero tillage planters to leave the top soil undisturbed. Farmers can hire the equipment but at the same time we will focus on soil water maintenance through zero tillage techniques to address the growing problem of climate change in the East African regions. Most farmers rely on rain fed agriculture and the rainfall pattern is changing from regular rains towards longer and unpredictable periods of drought. Zero tillage combined with mulching and intelligent intercropping to increase places of shade proves to be a very promising solution to the problem. Farmers usually tend to break open the top soil several times before and during the season and as a result much soil water is lost through evaporation. The less the soil is disturbed the more water is buffered under the top soil and available for root and plant development. Mulching and specific intercropping will help reduce the loss of soil water, reduce the time used for weeding and improve the soil organic matter as well.
