By Joshua Kato
Edula is empty! Edula is the local name for one of the most precious structures in a rural farming home; the granary. Since pre-colonial days, small scale farmers used Edula to store their grains. “I grew up seeing it. My parents used to store their foods there,” says Joseph Ekocu, a farmer in Aloet, near Soroti town. And at times when farmers are making big losses due to poor storage of dried foods, the traditional granary can still come in handy.
The granary is one of the amazing typically Ugandan invention. “At home especially during times of scarcity, the granary was the most precious structure in the compound. An empty granary was not only an embarrassment to the woman of the house, but also the husband,” says Mary Amongin in Ngora district.
Granaries are useful structures for preserving grain crops. They help in food storage as a response to climate change impacts. As way back as pre-colonial memory, granaries were common in the East, North and North-West, parts of the West of Uganda. It was normally used for storing cereals like maize, millet and sorghum plus pulses for example beans. In the Central region, granary is called ekyaagi, though the construction differs.
The first granaries reportedly appeared around 9500BC in the Jordan valley, by 6000BC it had reached Egypt. In East Africa, the granary reportedly arrived during the onset of civilization, when people started living in houses and growing food.
When the colonialists came here, they were also mesmerized by the traditional granary and its effectiveness in storing food. In one of their writings in The East African Agricultural Journal, in 1943, H.R Hosking called the granary ‘the Wickewok basket’. “Indigenous natives have used this basket for generations to keep food away from pests and rain,” he wrote.
“Every home must have ekyagi,” President Museveni always says. Museveni reiterates that the granary must always be full of food if it has to make meaning. “When you grow food, eat some and leave some for store. You can only store it properly if you have a granary,” he says.
Safe food
According to research, one of the driving innovation of the raised granary was the nature of the environment especially in the East and North of the country. Farms are flooded in most parts of Eastern and northern Uganda at some periods of the year. This means that unless one had stored his reserved produce in a raised structure, then it would be affected by rain.
In some cases, many farmers harvested and stored their cereals inside their houses only to lose it after the houses were flooded.
This is why a granary is a must have for all farmers in the flood-prone regions. Ironically, many years ago, it was unthinkable for a homestead of a typical farmer in Teso, Lango and Acholi not to have a granary. “When a person planned his homestead, the granary was one of the structures located on the compound,” Ekocu says.
In many parts of Western Uganda, the granary was also common. However, as modernity set in, many people abandoned them. “We still have granaries but not as many as in the 70s and 80s. People are using a bit of modern methods for storing food. Some are using modern cereal tanks and bags,” says Florence Mugisa in Karambi sub-county, Kabarole. Traditionally, there were granaries in Kigezi/Rukiga and Bukonzo.
There is also another challenge and this is mainly about ‘buried knowledge’. Many of the older people who knew about constructing granaries have since died.
“Every locality had an expert in constructing the granary. However as time went by, many of these died leaving no person to carry on the role.
How a granary is made
-The main characteristic of the granary is that it is constructed either using a peeled bamboo, papyrus reeds or small sticks of approximately one cm in diameter.
-Such sticks are usually from Lantana Camara (Common Lantana or Tick berry) or branches of Eucalyptus. The material is woven into a round cylindrical shape of about 2 meters height and 1.5 meters in diameter. The structure is then mounted on wooden poles to keep it off the ground to avoid rodents and water from entering.
-A round roof made of grass is placed on top as a roof to protect the interior of the granary from rain. A space of about 5 cm is left between the roof and the upper end of the round wall in order to allow for aeration. The way of storage in the granary allows air to flow into and out of the granary and reduce / prevent rotting processes due to moisture accumulation in the granary.
-The major activity is the construction of the flat granary base structure and later the construction of the superimposed structure using poles on which the granary stands. Periodically the grain is removed and dried in the sun to remove any moisture and pests that may have entered the granary. The granary is also periodically smeared with cow dung to close any holes that develop but also protect it from damage by insects.
“What famers like about the technology is that the grain is kept for a long period at the cheapest cost. The materials used to make the granaries are locally available and the skill required in the construction is minimal. Storage space in the house is saved since the granary is established outside,” an expert says.
Disadvantages
One of these is that it cannot be safely locked to stop thieves from stealing it. “You can only look out for thieves but you cannot farmers do not like granaries because the food inside them is often prone to theft especially during periods of famine,” Ekocu says.
