By Eddie Ssejjoba
The Bucket Project of the Miracle Church Ministries, growing hybrid sorghum in Karamoja sub-region for the second season to feed the hungry communities is projecting another bumper harvest in the coming four weeks.
This is going to be the second harvest of the short-sweet sorghum that was planted in early April on the 2,000-acre piece of land located at Lomulaangale pan village in Lorengecora sub-county, Napak district.
The farm is under the Yeshua Life Limited under the Robert Kayanja Bucket Initiative and was started to help the people of Karamoja get enough food to eat and learn the skills of modern agriculture to take part in feeding their families.
In the first season, between October 2023 and January 2024, the Bucket Project got good yields from the 2,000 acres planted on land donated by the residents.
Pastor Chrispian Bayiye, the farm manager was in high spirits and laying grounds to embark on massive harvests in the coming four weeks.
Some of the sorghum, a staple food for the people of Karamoja, will be distributed to communities and vulnerable homesteads faced with starvation.
Bayiye however said that growing the sweet sorghum was meeting a challenge of the migratory quelea quelea (weaver birds) that eat and destroy the crop.
But he explained that they had dedicated a lot of effort to keep the birds from causing more havoc by hiring people who blow vuvuzelas in to create noise that scares them away.
They also destroy the bird nests on trees within the garden, which Bayeya said sends them away from the farm. He said about a third of the destructive birds remain, but despite the challenge, they still expect to get a good harvest.
This time around they planted less but expect to increase the acreage in the next season.
“By July we expect to start harvesting from the 800 acres we planted this season, the outcome is so good from the sorghum variety we planted, which is drought resistant and giving good yields,” he explained, adding that this is their second successful season in their efforts to grow food for the people of Karamoja.
He explained that in the last season, they were able to feed 6,000 families of between five to seven people, which totalled 36,000 people.
“Our mission is dual purpose, one, to fight hunger in Karamoja, but secondly to show the people here that they can grow food on their land and engage in agriculture and you can see by the road that there are many gardens that have been started by different families,” he explained.
He said that because of what people see on the farm which is strategically located along the Napak-Moroto highway, many people stop to see and learn from their successful yields and have started doing the same in their areas.
These include people they employ on the farm who have been able to grow their food.
“Many people from Karamoja have learnt to grow their own food, which never happened in the past, which is one of our achievements,” he said, adding that the farm employs about 700 people a day and each is paid between sh5,000 and 7,000.
Other workers, he explained, are single mothers who used to have their children under the care of a non-governmental organization that recently closed but they seek to work on the farm to get money to pay their fees to let their children continue in school.
Others, he explained, use the money to buy seeds to plant, hire ex-ploughs to clear their gardens or set up businesses.
“We thank God who gave Pastors, Robert and Jessica Kayanja the vision to start growing food in Karamoja and undertaking this mission, which would not be possible if there was no faith,” Bayeya said adding that the project was also grateful to all those who have partnered and supported the project.
Maria Agom and Christine Logwona, both single mothers and workers at the farm said they had acquired knowledge and were able to save some money, which they used to buy seeds to plant their own crops. Agom has two acres of maize and acres of sunflower.
“If Pastor Kayanja had not come some of us would be dead already, but I received food and I have been working at the farm, saved money and now I have my own garden,” said Logwona.
Jacob Yeno, 61, the chairperson of the village said the project paid him 20% of what was harvested from his village and got sh11m and was expecting another pay for this season.
He has used the money to top up and build shops, which he expects to hire out when they are complete.
Anothony Lemakoc said he was part of a team that tried to convince people to surrender their land, but it was like a wild idea, and few believed in it.
“During the last harvest, we got a good yield and people realized that we could get two seasons in a year and part of the harvest was given free to vulnerable people, I personally distributed 400 bags to families in my area,” he explained.
He said the land was situated in a corridor for cattle raids and many families left but they are coming back because of the farm.
Lucy Mungesi, one of the farm workers said she comes with her two elder daughters and son to work on the farm, and each is paid sh5,000 and all together get sh25,000, and in one week they get over sh100,000, which they use to buy food, seed and hire a tractor to clear their garden.
