By Sara:
Last year, I had the opportunity to host staff from Amigos Worldwide at my house, teach them about some plants which were new to them, and take them along for one of my farmer trainings. In January, I was able to reciprocate by visiting one of the places where they are working near Gulu.
Titus and Maureen took me on the tour and we met with two different farmer groups to hear about what they are learning and putting into practice in their communities. I was especially impressed by one of the groups' desire to learn new cooking ideas from Titus. Titus studied catering before he went into agriculture, so he always shares something different with the group when he visits. Many Ugandans are not into trying new things, but this group was definitely ready to try whatever he suggested to them!
It also struck me what the groups shared as the most helpful techniques they've learned from Amigos trainings so far. One of the main things people mentioned was about planting in rows. They said that they used to broadcast pretty much anything, but now they plant in rows, even small-seeded crops (which can be a big challenge when you are planting an acre or more). But now, they use an empty water bottle with a small hole in the lid. They mix the seeds with some sand and then fill the bottle with that mixture. That way, they can stand as they walk and sprinkle the seeds in lines. The group marveled at how now, even men can weed the garden! Because apparently if the work is difficult, women have to do it... Not only that, though, but they realized they are not using as many seeds to plant a garden as they did before and still get a good harvest. So the work of weeding is reduced and seeds are not wasted.
Planting in lines seems like a really simple technique, as if there's no point mentioning it since surely everyone already knows to do that. But if you think about it, when you're planting a big garden by hand, it seems faster and easier to broadcast, rather than bending over and planting every seed in a line. When farmers like these learn a simpler way to plant in lines and see how it can benefit them, though, it can make a big difference in their lives.
While we were in the village, there was a family threshing chia seeds. You can see how they are beating the stems with sticks on top of a tarp in the picture below:
We also visited a farmer who has benefited from training on beekeeping. The hives were entrusted to a group, but the other people gave up on the work, so this farmer has continued on his own. He has continued to add more beehives since then and is expanding on his honey business. You can see the variety of types of hives he has in the picture below.
When Kang had his internship with us in January, I took him to visit Benjamin, someone from PAG with whom I worked during my time with World Renew. He is now working as an agriculture extension officer and also has some very interesting agricultural projects going on at his home.
First, Benjamin has built a greenhouse in which to grow sweet peppers. Years ago, he started outside with tomatoes and only as many plants as he could water by hand. But over time, he saved the profits from each season and eventually was able to invest them in building the greenhouse and setting up drip irrigation.
He still has tomatoes outside and put up poles so he can trellis them when they get bigger.
Kang got to try out the manual pump Benjamin has for getting water into the tank he uses for his drip irrigation scheme. He got this after he earned enough money from the vegetables he used to water by hand. Now, he also has a small generator pump, but this manual one is the pump he started with. Benjamin is a good example of someone who planned well and used what he had to grow high value crops, then slowly built up his resources from there.
While we were there, his kids and some friends were threshing beans, using the same method as the kids above with the chia. They were very excited to show off their energy in a video:
