CA in Moroto

By Sara:

In December, I had the opportunity to travel to Moroto to participate in a meeting of different Ugandan organizations working with Canadian Foodgrains Bank (CFGB).  It was interesting to hear about the ways the different organizations have been practicing and teaching conservation agriculture and to listen to the ways they shared with and encouraged one another.

One day, we visited a learning center, a ways outside of Moroto to see what they are teaching.  They didn't have great examples of conservation agriculture (CA) or farmer managed natural regeneration (FMNR - this involves pruning trees in agriculture fields rather than chopping them down completely).  But it gave our group some confidence in their own knowledge that they had more experience and understanding of the concepts than this training center did.

I did think their kitchen garden with a little grass-thatched roof over the compost pile in the middle was kind of cool.  It keeps the compost more in the shade and protects it from too much rain.

One of the big challenges we discussed was how to deal with roaming animals during the dry season when doing CA.  Farmers doing CA want to keep their soil covered either with growing plants or with some kind of mulch.  But when animals are set loose during the dry season, they can finish off anything growing and clear entire fields.  No perfect solutions were reached, but it was a good discussion where different people shared ideas for how they have dealt with such challenges so far.

I always am very amused to see long lines of construction workers sweeping roads by hand with brooms.  This road is going to be amazing once it is completed.