Ober Child Mothers Association is a youth farmer group that was established in 2012 in Barr Sub County of Lira District in northern Uganda. It trains young mothers in sustainable food production, helping them achieve financial and food security. The group has 30 women under the age of 35.
The farmers group has developed and implemented organic agricultural practices that can be accessed and afforded by smallholder farmers. They have developed bio-pesticides, bio-manure, bio-rodenticide, incorporated banana leaves for storage of grains and cereals to control weevils and minimize post-harvest losses. The farmers are now producing organic sesame and devised better methods of drying and processing the sesame to cakes.
The farmers also gained skills in sustainable agricultural practices in their small holder rural farms. SWITCH Africa Green provided the technical expertise through toolkits, training, technical monitoring, mentorship and innovative product development that resulted in increased sesame production and productivity.
The association was a beneficiary of a project, Sesame – Green Jobs Uganda: Eco-Agriculture – Sesame Livelihoods and Organic – Green Business Opportunities for Young Rural People. The project was implemented by Plan International in partnership with National Organic Agricultural Movement of Uganda (NOGAMU). Switch Africa Green programme is funded by the European Union.
“When I got pregnant at a very young age and I was abandoned after giving childbirth, I lived in isolation,” says Adongo Dorcus a member of the association. “After joining this group, I felt a sense of belonging since it is composed of fellow child mothers who also happen to be farmers like myself. Through this group and this organic sesame project, I have even been able to meet and interact with numerous people outside my group through the networking events and exposure visits.”
During implementation of the SWITCH Africa Green project sustainability hotspots were identified. One intervention was through reduction of chemical usage in the production and consumption of sesame. This would be done by promoting organic sesame production through promotion of ecofriendly agronomic practices and more so use of organic pesticides and fertilizers also called biorationals, during sesame production and storage.
The project carried out trainings on ecological agriculture production practices, organic products quality management and eco-marketing principles, standards and market requirements and post harvest practices, collective marketing and quality assurance.
The project also trained farmers on organic sesame production, processing and marketing, while enabling farmer exchange visits, sesame value chain, and wider networking events. Additionally, farmers were exposed to linkages on product and financial markets and finally, the project supported the development of a draft National Organic Agriculture Policy. The modules that were used for the training were consolidated into a Farmers Training Manual on Sesame Ecological Agriculture.
“Because of this global warming, people are not able to detect the weather conditions,” says Susan Opio, member, Ober Child Mothers Association. “That means hunger and famine was threatening everyone. I chose to join this project and start doing something that can sustain us throughout the year.”
The project addressed several challenges that were hindering high production of the crops. These included the poor design of products produced, use of chemical fertilizers and pesticides for soil fertility enhancement, use of chemical pesticides for pest and disease control during crop production, cutting down of trees to create sesame drying racks and drying sesame on cow dung smeared floors.
Group members received trainings in areas such as organic sesame input supply, organic sesame agronomy, organic sesame weed control and management, organic sesame disease control and management. Other trainings carried out were on organic sesame pre-harvest, harvesting and post-harvest management, organic waste management, inspection, certification, standards and market requirements in addition to general organic sesame marketing. Two Trainer of Trainers were chosen from the group for more extensive capacity building to sustain the project.
As a result of the project intervention there was introduction of the use of organic fertilizers such as compost, mulch and liquid manure (biorational) for soil fertility enhancement, use of organic pesticides (biorational) for pest and disease control during crop production, planting of trees to create green or living sesame drying racks and drying of sesame on tarpaulin to enhance quality and meet the stringent requirements of the ultra-competitive eco markets. These are some traditional practices that were dying and can be used by many small scale farmers in Africa. The practices are very simple, cheap and effective.
More people in the community now know about organic sesame production and more so organic agriculture. Because of the quality standards expected of organic sesame production and the general interest generated, some farmers are fully converting their farms into organic entities and are now even targeting other crops in their production portfolio for organic conversion. Some 214 jobs were created from the immediate families of the 30 group members.
In promoting organic agriculture with emphasis on sesame production and storage using bio rations such as organic pesticides and liquid fertilizer, use of synthetic chemicals in sesame and other crops production and storage has reduced.
By its focus on the sustainable consumption and production of sesame, the project has brought into focus sesame products such as cooking oil, sesame paste, cakes (animal feed), flour, seed, soda ash, manure or compost, biscuits, roasted salted sesame, mulch and local brew among others. The interest generated has increased the demand for the products.
“When SWITCH Africa Green came, we had a lot of trainings with them converting their mindsets from conventional way of doing things into the organic, sustainable way of managing their production,” says Lay Laban, the project manager of NOGAMU. “We also introduced to them the idea of group marketing. We told them to market it properly, we need them to come together”
A market has emerged around the production and sale of liquid manure, organic pesticides and other bio rations and mulch and some of the farmers are already earning from it.
Tree seedlings are suddenly in demand based on the trainings the farmers received about climate change, agroforestry and construction of living seed drying racks. While some farmers are boosting the existent tree nursery operators by buying from them, some are setting up their own tree nurseries since they believe the business is lucrative now and will be more so in the future.
