The East African Grain Council (EAGC) has launched a climate adaptation project worth UGX 5.5 billion that aims to benefit over 12,000 smallholder farmers, commercial project partners, youths, exporters and traders of agricultural products.
The project launched in Kampala on Tuesday, August 29, 2023, by the executive director of EAGC, Gerald Masila, targets small and medium-sized farmers with an initial number of 12,000 recipients.
“The main objective is to empower smallholder farmers by enhancing their ability to adopt various climate adaptation methods; this, in turn, will create a need for irrigation technology, “said Masila.
This project will also skill and equip small-scale farmers with the knowledge needed to adopt various climate adaptation strategies, which will help generate a greater demand for irrigation technology among these farmers.
He noted that the main focus of the project is to address unpredictable and insufficient rainfall by exploring alternative water sources such as lakes, rivers, and dams, which will primarily be used to support the cultivation of high-value crops like cereals and horticulture.
John McNay, an East African advisor for access to innovations at a Danish NGO that supports Danish business in the East African markets, said both globally and definitely in EA that there are changes in the climate, which means that farmers are having crop failure. Access to irrigation will solve the problem.
“Instead of selling seasonal crops, farmers should be supported to have crop production all year, because natural rainfall is not reliable,” McNay said.
He further advised that irrigation is just one of the solutions; however, enlisting and adapting to new skills in terms of growing more sophisticated types of crops is part of the project.
DANIDA Green Business Program (DGBP) in partnership with EAGC-Uganda, Grundof (Denmark), Akvo International-Uganda, and Access to Innovation Denmark, will implement this three-year project facilitated by the Danish Ministry of Foreign Affairs, aiming at promoting environmentally sustainable business projects.
