By Vision Reporter
National Agricultural Research Organisation (NARO) has launched a seed multiplication drive in Uganda’s refugee camps.
The initial consignment of 80 bags of potato vines of the Narospot 1 and 8 varieties and 150 bags of cassava cuttings of the Narocas 1 variety was delivered to Rwamwanja Refugee Settlement. More than 60 farmers from the settlement villages of Buguta and Kyempango received seeds and were trained.
The principal investigator of the project, Dr Kenneth Akankwatsa, said the project would also deliver seeds of other NARO-generated varieties of beans, maize and bananas, as well as assorted vegetables to the settlement.
“Having seen the impact of the introduction of bananas among the returning communities of northern Uganda after the LRA war, we know how genuine seeds of essential commodities can transform the livelihoods of a disaster-stricken people,” Akankwasa said.
He noted that the initiative would reduce on the food crises that characterise refugee camps.
“With the ever-increasing number of refugees and shrinking land sizes in the settlements and host communities, as well as counterfeit inputs on the market, our vision is to minimise the resultant recurrent food insecurities,” Akankwatsa said.
He added that the Office of the Prime minister (OPM) had also gazetted an acre of land in the camp for NARO to set up a demonstration site of essential commodities and act as a farmer field school in the settlement.
Akankwatsa urged government and donors to support the project to enable it to sufficiently cover all Uganda’s refugee camps and host communities as initially planned.
The Refugee Welfare Council III chairperson of Rwamwanja, Innocent Niyonzima, hoped that the drive would mitigate hunger in the settlement. He said there had been several failed harvests in the settlement due to poor seeds and harsh weather.
While launching the project, the OPM livelihoods officer in Rwamwanja Refugee settlement, Sarah Acen, said the delivery of seeds during the March rains was timely.
“There is a planned scaling down and phasing out of food distribution to categories of refugees that we considered self-resilient beginning June 2023. Due to budget cuts from donors and government, we will now focus more on vulnerable ones like new arrivals, unaccompanied minors and child-headed households while we look to interventions like this one by NARO to help many to be self-reliant,” she said.
