The team is part of the Resilient Urban Food Systems Project (RUFS-Uganda), led by Dr Frank Mugagga, Head of the Department and Team Leader. The project focuses on Kasese and Mbale urban areas. The Mbale workshop, held on 14-15 February 2022 at Dream Palace Hotel, was attended by smallholder farmers, political leaders and other key stakeholders from the region.
RUFS-Uganda, which started in June 2021 and ends in May 2023, is implemented by Makerere University in collaboration with AgriFoSe2030.
Unlocking the potential of smallholders
In his opening remarks, Dr. Paul Mukwaya, a lecturer in the Department of Geography, Geo-Informatics and Climatic Sciences at Makerere University and the project co-lead, said it was important to jointly deliberate on the activities of the project and to actualise the proposed solutions. RUFS-Uganda aims to unlock the potential of smallholder farmers for resilient urban food systems.
According to Dr Mugagga, research projections indicate that by 2050, 68% of the global population will be urban-based, and by 2040, 60% of the food eaten within the cities will be coming from smallholder farmers, therefore there is a need to recognise the role a smallholder farmer plays.
“This is the main reason why RUFS-Uganda targets smallholder farmers. We want to promote changed attitudes towards smallholder farming.The decision-makers should recognise smallholder farmers as important producers of food for city residents and consequently ensure that support mechanisms include them”, Dr Mugagga said.
Caption: Makerere Staff and Nabiyonga Farmers’ Group crossing River Nabiyonga during the transect tour of the river. Photo: AgriFoSe2030
The project has already reached notable milestones
In line with the goals of the project, RUFS-Uganda has registered major achievements, notably the formation of ‘Mbale City Food Systems Platform’. The platform will bring together all food system actors along Mbale City value chains and will be hosted by the City Production Department. The platform will also advocate for several things; the rights of all actors, an increase in food production, the importance to spearhead good policies, quality control, a better governance system, organising and empowering people, training and standards, networking, and exchange of ideas.
An additional achievement of RUFS-Uganda is supporting the registration process of the Nabiyonga Horticulture Farmers’ group by the Community Development Office (Mbale City Authority) as well as initiating trainings using existing model farmers.
The workshop was concluded with visits to River Nabiyonga, the Nabiyonga Horticulture Farmers’ Group and to Wepukhulu Juma, a model farmer with innovative skills in modern urban agriculture. Wepukhulu uses waste materials like cement bags, rusts nails mixed with water and lemon, as a remedy to replenish plant nutrients.
