Food & Incomes

Improving the quality of tools and seeds can improve the livelihoods of the rural poor.

Read about one of our projects in Uganda.......

Voluntary Action for Development (VAD,) one of Aidlink’s 3 key partners in Uganda, began to work closely with the farmers of Masuliita county in the Wakiso district of Uganda in May 2008. VAD’s project, entitled “Increased Household Food Security & Increased Incomes” focused on improving the livelihoods of the rural poor in the district by providing them with improved agricultural tools and seeds and also by providing the farmers with the necessary know-how, through quality trainings on sustainable agricultural practices, to make these improvements for themselves.

In May 2010 VAD expanded this project to another two parishes in the district, Lugungudde and Katikamu, and it was in the village of Lugungudde where we caught up with a man called Charles Kyambadde.

Charles is currently a model farmer, Community Agricultural Trainer and a chairperson of Kasiita water source located near his home.

This is his story in his own words:

“My name is Charles Kyambadde aged 37, and I am born of this village. My father died when I was young and I therefore never got a chance to attain higher education that enables me to get paid white color jobs. I am married to Passy my wife with seven children (4 girls and 3 boys). When I was 17 years I moved to the city to look for jobs and I was lucky that I got the job of being a salesman in a small motorcycle dealer shop. This meant that I was not a permanent paid staff but only getting commission from whichever motorcycle I would get a buyer and life became very difficult for me most of the time when I did not get a buyer yet I had to pay my monthly rent and feed my family.

Life became even more difficult when the shop collapsed due to lack of customers to buy the motorcycles, it meant that I was left jobless and with no alternative at all but to go back to my village where again I had no where to start from, no house, no income but only bush land where I grew up. Life became harder for me to live and sustain my big family. When I went back in 2008 I first stayed with my young brother who had a small house on our late father’s land.

The food was not enough even for a single family but now we were two families. We tried to cultivate the land with my brother and our two wives but what we were growing was dieing and for the majority the yields were very low. In May 2010, when VAD started working in Lugungudde parish particularly in our village, it was the beginning of my new life, a life of joy.

I had prior information from other villages about what VAD had done in Agriculture. When VAD came to our village, I was the very first person to welcome them and I attended all the sustainable Agricultural trainings VAD conducted. After the trainings, I, my wife and children started implementing what we were trained on our land. We used the knowledge and skills we were trained in on the land. In only six months we had started getting the yields of our training and we had enough food for our family and every one in the village was admiring our garden and many came to our home for advice.

In July 2010, the farmers in our village selected me to be trained further to become a trainer and in this case to became a Community Agriculture trainer (CAT) which I accepted and I got extra training in better methods of agriculture. I was among 13 other farmers who attended this 5 days training.

Today, my village is very proud of me and I can not regret the time I spent away from home training because I have the knowledge and skills which I acquired and I have used this knowledge to develop my farming practices in my Garden and I have also trained many other farmers in my village. Agriculture is now my business, from the sales of the produce of my farm.

I get over Ug Shs 440,000 (€150) and in many occasions farmers from other areas come here to be trained and they pay me and in some cases I am hired to go and train other farmers away from here and I am paid. I am now a very happy farmer in my village. I recall the time when I was in the city suffering and I regret why I never came to the village much earlier. In March 2011, the village selected me to be the beneficiary of an improved in calf heifer from this agriculture project. I have the cow and I expect a calf very soon and I will start selling milk and earn an extra income. My wife and children are now living a happier life and they are healthy!

In December 2010, I was also elected by my community to be the chairperson of Kasiita water source. I am now a respectable member of my community and many of my village listen to me with respect and they would take my words as always educative. From a misery life in the city, I am now living as a happy and successful father because I have the knowledge and skills!”