Creating wealth, one cow at a time

Farmers in eastern Uganda have been urged to emulate their counterparts in the west of the country by engaging in improved farming practices that will make them wealthy.

“All the money for livestock inputs for distribution around the country is spent in Bushenyi region in western Uganda. This should make you angry and provoke you to become competitive producers. I want you to have positive anger and work to perform better than those from Bushenyi who sell these inputs,” Ms Joan Kakwenzire , the senior presidential advisor on poverty alleviation told the people of Tororo.

“Since 2007, we have bought 67 heads of improved cattle for distribution in eastern Uganda, many of which died during the drought. We have brought 15 more (each at Shs1.3m) for Pakoyi Village and when this succeeds, the concept will be rolled out to other villages. The recipients have this time been taught how to take care of the animals even during the drought and they have field officers who will be advising them from time to time,” she added, explaining that cattle, goats and pigs would have been procured from eastern Uganda if they were available, rather than from the distant Bushenyi. “And the people have a right to reject what they see as inferior,” she said.

Pakoyi still poor
Kakwenzire was officiating at the hand-over of 15 in-calf heifers to the people of Pakoyi in Pette sub-county in Kisoko under the “wealth creation’”programme run under the Presidency; Pakoyi is one of the four parishes in Pette Sub-county with a population of 16,000.

Under this programme, 23 villages of this nature have been established in the country as a nucleus for “wealth creation” with the expectation that their improved animal husbandry and modern agricultural practices would be rolled out to the rest of the country or adopted by neighbours as role models. Commenting about the state of wealth in Pakoyi parish, Tororo District Woman Member of Parliament, Grace Oburu said, “You can count the number of bicycles here.” She quoted the 2006 UNDP Human Development Report’s reference to the village as one of the poorest among the communities in the district. It has been adopted to be developed into a model village that should have food and income security, which is also a self-confidence building enterprise among the rural poor in the only project of its kind in Tororo.

Revolving around livestock, through passing-on of a heifer, villagers in this pilot “wealth creation” project have been psychologically prepared to lift themselves out of poverty initially by ensuring they live in hygienic homesteads and have food and vegetable gardens (they must have food granaries too). Being food secure, they would not sell off the seed inputs they receive from the government. This project emphasises livestock development because when properly managed, it is a year-round income-generating scheme. “We (Poverty Alleviation Department) enter your house because we want to know how you eat, sleep or what your hygiene is like; some programmes have not succeeded because they do not uplift the whole person. By living in an ideal homestead, people would know what to do to lead a decent life. They should be nurtured to have expectations and have a vision of what they want to become.”

The initial participants in this programme have therefore improved their homesteads; they are tidy and enclosed with hedges, they have kitchens with locally made fuel-saving fire places, pit latrines, bath shelter, and utensil-washing racks. They have also formed groups through which they support one another by saving money, jointly approaching common challenges and marketing their produce as a group. “It is thus easy for you to set up warehousing facilities, find bulk buyers, enhance your bargaining power and benefit from the economies of scale as cooperators,” Ms Kakwenzire advised the Pakoyi people.

Pakoyi, meant to be a model village, operates on the lead farmer’s concept, where each of the 15 people who received an in-calf heifer is expected to teach their neighbours how to raise and maximise the benefits from livestock, including the use of kraal manure to improve their crop yields. The theory of this intervention is that, “A heifer revolutionises the recipient homestead; the dung acts as manure, the urine is a pesticide, some of the milk is consumed and the rest sold for cash to meet other needs. The first heifer is then passed on to another prepared member of the community.”

PAD’s eastern and northern Uganda coordinator, Ms Felicitus Magomu, says besides in-calf heifers, small ruminants especially goats, poultry and banana suckers plus coffee seedlings have been distributed among the groups that were ready to receive them. Those receiving in-calf heifers have at least a one acre garden of elephant-grass, have built sheds to protect their animals and received seed veterinary drugs.

Readiness
56-year-old Peter Opio looks much older than his age, owing to the vicious cycle of poverty, poor nutrition, hard work and lack of peace of mind because his family of nine looks to him for sustenance in a challenging environment. But he never gave up, and by the time of the intervention, he had planted a few orange trees that are now bearing fruit.

He grows mango trees and has an eight-acre garden of cassava for home consumption and sale; he also grows millet when the season is right. Of his eight children, one is through with formal schooling, two are in S.4 and S.5 and the rest in lower classes. He received a heifer, after planting an acre of elephant grass and building a cow shed. He also has a pigsty and a goat shelter.

Anticipating drought, Opio dug and built a 22-foot well in his compound from which he draws water for domestic use, and also water for his plants and animals. He manages a shy smile, looking forward to improved welfare when the cow delivers and gives milk in a few months, besides other benefits.

Also resident in Pakoyi Village is 54-year-old David Odoi, a husband of three and father to nine children, all of them in school and one at university. He has in the past received 1,500 tilapia and 1,000 catfish fingerlings that he has reared in two ponds. They are now ready for the market; he also planted 120 mango trees and 100 orange trees, his cowshed with a concrete floor is ready. He has an acre of elephant grass and is elated at the prospect of the potential benefits from the in-calf heifer he is about to receive and like Opio before him, his homestead is hygienic.

Mbale region
Busiita Development Association is a parish group in Busiita Parish, Bumugu Sub-county in Sironko District. The chairman, Mr Alfred Kusolo, says it brings together 1,112 homesteads with an average of seven persons each. Under the “wealth creation” initiative, the parishioners have in the past received 10,000 matooke suckers, 30,000 coffee seedlings, 55,000 fish fingerlings, 270 chicks (along with 30 bags of feeds) and now 15 in-calf heifers each worth Shs1.3m.

As happened in Pakoyi, the crops were adversely affected by drought. “You could have harnessed water and kept your crops and animals alive. Adopt water harvesting, you are a model village and proudly so; adapt to a rainless situation. You know there is money and food in bananas, why let the drought affect them?” Beatrice Wabudeya, the Minister for the Presidency, advised.

She was handing over of 14 heifers to the Basiita, and advised that they should also learn to vaccinate their chicken, even the local breeds, against diseases and that their committee should inspect farmers to see that none takes the programme inputs for granted, “If you do not properly care for the first calf that you should pass on to another person, it is the mother that will be taken away, leaving you with the malnourished calf. If found mistreating the incalf you received, it will be given to another person,” she warned, adding that properly cared-for animals would bear calves every 12 months and their milk would pay for their upkeep, the manure fertilise coffee and banana gardens, and then there would be money to take the children to school. Under this concept, if 14 people got heifers, another 14 would get ready to receive; the same applies to goats and banana suckers until the entire village is covered.

Mangho people
With a population of 800 people, Mangho Village in Bungokho Mutoto Parish in Mbale District is another model village where the “wealth creation” concept has been promoted. Prospective input recipients have been trained and given banana suckers. They were also taught kitchen gardening and prepared to receive cattle.

Mangho is a stones-throw away from Mbale State Lodge, a fact the population exploited to draw the President’s attention to their poverty plight, hence the establishment of a model village there. From the 20 in-calf heifers they received in two batches, farmers have passed on four female calves to their neighbours; seven have bulls and ten cows are expecting.

Landholdings of quarter an acre or less are common in Mangho. Grace Wamimbi who is a resident with three acres is one of the biggest landholders in the area. She has put the land to good use by growing elephant grass for her heifer, as well as coffee, matooke, cassava and beans.

A recipient of one from the initial batch of 10 heifers, the 60-year-old has been collecting 13 litres of milk daily, some of which the family of six consumes while the rest is sold. She says she earns about Shs80,000 a month from the milk sales at Shs350 per litre, which helps in the procurement of groceries. Ms Kakwenzire was impressed. “You are industrious, which is why you are able to sustain yourselves; I am therefore arranging a market for your milk, vegetables and food produce,” she pledged.