Reviving degraded land through improved land management practises in the Elgon region
Using climate smart agriculture to improve crop yields and protect the environment
Mbale, Eastern Uganda — For communities around Mountain Elgon, in Eastern Uganda, the onset of rain often spells disaster.
This is so because when rains come pounding on the slopes of the 4,321-metre-high mountain landscape, they trigger landslides and flooding in the low-laying plains ruining planted gardens, homes and affecting the livelihoods of the communities that live there.
In the past, this happened occasionally, giving communities time to recover from such disasters, in this era of climate change however, the incidence of disasters is more frequent. Therefore, supporting communities to cope with the effects of climate change is now more pertinent than ever.
It is for this reason that United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) introduced the; Integrated Landscape Management (ILM) for Livelihoods Improvement and Ecosystems Resilience in the Mt Elgon Region, to help communities cope with climate variability.
Sylvia’s Story
For the last ten years, 33 year old Sylvia Kakai, a married mother of four living on the slopes of Mount Elgon in Bushiuyo village, Mbale district was distraught about the state of her land.
Her family’s half acre of land was badly degraded by frequent soil erosion and loss of organic matter making it unproductive and leaving her family with no source of income.
In 2016, the Integrated Landscape Management (ILM) Project came to her rescue.
The project team in partnership with the local government officials met with communities in hot spot communities which are along the Mt. Elgon landslide belt. Through these community meetings, landscape committees were formed to address the issues of soil erosion and land degradation. Leaders for these committees were elected by the communities following a criteria shared by the local government officials during the meetings.
Sylvia was elected by her community to lead their village level environment protection committee in Bushiuyo. She was given the responsibility of mobilising her neighbours to take part in trainings and actions on sustainable land management.
With support from the Parish level trainers for sustainable land management and the district extension workers, Sylvia and her group were taught how to construct proper contours, stabilise them with grass and stone bunds, dig permanent planting basins to reduce the frequency of tillage as well as mulching to conserve soil moisture. These sustainable land management methods were intended to reduce soil erosion and reverse land degradation which are widespread in the Elgon belt.
After trying out these new techniques on her land, Sylvia realised that the contours which trap running water collected very fertile soil which she would scoop out and put back in her garden where she grew tomatoes, onions and Irish potatoes.
During the first season of employing this technique, Sylvia harvested almost double the number of tomatoes she had harvested before. She is hopeful that the other crops will also double when she harvests.
“This project is a blessing to us. I had lost hope because the number of tomatoes we were harvesting kept reducing every season. Now, our harvests have increased again and our land is much better,” Sylvia says happily.
After implementing some of the integrated agricultural practices, her yield doubled and she was able to harvest 11 basins (77kg) of tomatoes compared to one basin (7kg) of tomatoes she had reaped previously on the same half-an-acre piece of land. She sold each basin of tomatoes at Shs25, 000 ($6.55) and earned Shs275, 000 (approximately $72.00).
From the income, Sylvia was able to buy herself a smart phone which she now uses to get market prices and information about government plans for the agriculture sector.
“With the smart phone I bought, I receive and can share information about commodity prices with women and men in the village, so nobody can cheat us anymore,” Sylvia said, adding that her community almost missed seed distribution by the district if she had not received the information in time.
About the Integrated Landscape Management (ILM) Project
Since 2016, the “Integrated Landscape Management (ILM) for Livelihoods Improvement and Ecosystems Resilience in the Mt Elgon Region” has been working to help communities cope with climate variability.
The three-year ILM project, implemented UNDP with funding from the Global Environment Fund (GEF) is being implemented in the highland agro-ecological zone of Eastern Uganda’s districts of Mbale, Bulambuli and Manafwa.
In the integrated landscape management approach, communities are taught to plan for their land in ways that will increase productivity today, without reducing its ability to produce more for them tomorrow. The overall goal is to improve productivity and household incomes while simultaneously popularising practices that make the ecosystem able to withstand harsh weather conditions.
With improved productivity, the districts of Mbale, Manafwa and Bulambuli have the potential of becoming the region’s food basket since various staple foods such as, maize, beans, vegetables and fruits flourish in this part of Uganda.
How the project works: The implementation of the project is community-based. Trained members of the Catchment Management Committee (CMC), lead others to implement climate smart or sustainable land-use activities. Key among the tasks is to control the heavy run off of water downhill which leads to soil erosion, loss of soil nutrients and fertility as well as landslides in extreme cases.
Residents, working in groups, dig trenches across the mountain slope, which trap the rain surface run-off. On the contours, bunds and edges of fields, trees and napier grass (Pennisetum) are planted to hold the soils and control run-off. The trees, apart from acting as wind breakers, provide wood fuel and timber.
SDG linkage
The ILM project is one of the many ways the UNDP is helping Uganda achieve the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Conservation and restoration of terrestrial ecosystems such as forests, wetlands, drylands and mountains by 2020 is a thread that runs through the 2030 Agenda.
The project’s work is halting the destruction of land due to human activity and the effects of climate change. This is an answer to SDGs 13 and 15 which focus on climate change action and life on land respectively.
It also addresses SDG 2 on Zero hunger by enabling communities to use more sustainable methods to grow food while reaping higher yields from their gardens. All these goals invariably lead to the achievement of SDG one which focuses on reducing poverty in communities as envisioned by both Agenda 2030 and the National Development Plan for Uganda.
Text & Photos by: Henry Nsubuga, Communications Unit -UNDP Uganda.
UNDP Uganda is part of the global network to empower lives and build resilient nations. In Uganda, we work with Government and other actors to eliminate poverty, inequality & exclusion to achieve sustainable development. To learn more about us, please visit: http://www.ug.undp.org/
