Many children and their families in rural Ugandan communities are severely undernourished. With basic training and resources, families can grow an abundance of nutritious food.
Using permaculture techniques, planting vegetables and fruit trees will also help to keep soil healthy and tackle deforestation, making food production more sustainable.
In 2011, Dolen Fermio’s Ugandan colleagues in Kamuli formed an alliance with farmers 400 farmers to introduce sustainable farming methods in the area.
Working together as Dolen Ffermio Environmental Farming and Health (DFEFH), the group has cultivated diverse forest-farmland, where different trees, crops and livestock can be grown sustainably for fuel, food, medicine and other uses.
Sharing the knowledge
Thanks to some very generous donations, DFEFH has been able to buy 28 acres of land by the Nile. Here they’ve built a demonstration farm to show, in situ, the best methods of agro-forestry. Water is pumped into a reservoir tank from a valley dam near the river. And swales have been dug across the land to retain rainwater in the soil.
eforestation is destroying the environment in Uganda. Between 1990 and 2005, more than 26% of forest and woodland cover was lost. These losses continue because people living in rural areas have no affordable alternative to wood fuel for cooking.
Over the past years, DFEFH has planted hundred of thousands of trees in addition to bamboo, often a more sustainable and versatile material.
With the help of schools and communities, the group has established tree and bamboo nurseries in Kamuli and Ngora, The project in Kamuli, which began in 2019, has a planting target of 40,000 trees in its first year.
“We’re promoting bamboo cultivation, which has been underdeveloped in Uganda. With its many species, and fast growth, it can be an excellent substitute for timber, whether in construction, charcoal making, furniture, crafts or even food and clothing. We’re fortunate to have learned from bamboo specialist Andrew Kalema Ndawula, a farmer and journalist.”
We use permaculture principles in all of our food and nutrition projects.These principles draw from nature, and traditional practices alongside contemporary thinking, to meet the diverse needs of communities. It considers food, energy, waste, housing, community and enterprise.
Permaculture is proving to be ideal for Uganda’s small-holding farms, maximising production while conserving the environment.
In 2016, Steve Jones of Sector 39, Montgomeryshire in Wales, led our first Permaculture Design Course (PDC) in Eastern Uganda, on the Kamuli land. We held another in 2017 for a Busoga High School food garden, and then an all East African course and convocation in Western Uganda.
In 2020, Dolen Ffermio’s Ugandan permaculture consultant Charles Mugarura helped to get permaculture accepted as part of the national curriculum at primary and lower secondary levels.
