The @UgandaFarm’s intended INTEGRATED agro-processing plant which you can read about here, and which shall create new market linkages for more than one type of crop — and thus help rural poor farmers diversify their incomes — is the kind of thing that can put the ultra poor in a place like ours on a self-sustainable path from poverty.
This plant is what I am asking you to help us develop, by teaming up with us in the 5 UNHUMANLY ways described on this website.
Let 2030 not be a total waste.
Help us make at least the smallest possible stride on extreme poverty in our region by 2030, by working together with us the unhumanly way.
The biggest challenge that keeps every rural smallholder farmer in our region in poverty, is the absence of reliable markets for their produce.
Today, the only time farmers in our region have a ready market for their produce, is when there is an acute food shortage, or a famine outbreak, e.g. as a result of severe droughts. When ample rains are in place, leading to a good harvest, there is simply no market. In other words, the presence of ample rains, and the right planting conditions, is in itself a curse. This is what our intended plant wants to change.
Unlike other traditional antipoverty endeavors that focus solely on handing out stuff to the poor, this plant shall practically place the ultra poor in our region on a self-sustainable path from poverty, by enabling them to use their own hands to turn into more productive citizens.
Once installed, the @UgandaFarm will initially provide each of our participating farmers with initial inputs (all at no charge, only as a hand-up) for 1-4 planting seasons, depending on the type of crop each farmer is growing. The reasons for doing this are detailed here.
With a ready market for their produce, and an established business model now in place, each farmer shall then thereafter be able to secure these inputs on their own in subsequent seasons, making our overall work self-scaling, and self-sustainable.
This plant shall be80%owned by the rural poor farmers who will be growing the crops that this plant will be working on, with the other 20% owned by the UCF, as a way of sustaining our underlying work of training & supporting rural poor farmers in our region.
We also want to ensure that this plant’s work is asgreenas possible.
Help us develop this plant, or only part of it, by 2030. See our funding needs for this plant on this page.
A few things:
1. Most rural households in our region are farmers who simply have nothing, but who are very ready to use their own hands to move themselves from poverty, if only they had access to reliable markets. If you could help us develop even only part of this plant, you will be proud of the work that we will do on the grip of poverty in our region.
2. While all other parts of Uganda are renowned for large plantations of everything from pineapples to barley, our region Busoga isn’t known for any, except sugarcane, a crop that has only bred more poverty due to monoculture, and more hunger (yet sugarcane can’t be eaten as food).
If you could help us develop this plant, our goal is to ensure that, by 2030, every part of Busoga is renowned for large plantations of crops that can both be eaten as food, and which can thus help improve food security (cassava; sorghum; maize; pineapples; mangoes; oranges, passion fruits etc), while at the same time placing the ultra poor on a self-sufficient path from poverty, with ready markets for their produce at harvest.