Milk is still in very short supply in Uganda. The average yearly consumption per person is 20 litres compared to the UK where it is 231 litres!

Uganda’s once thriving agricultural industry was destroyed by the reign of terror of Idi Amin and the ensuing civil war from 1971 – 1985. Now with a stable government, Ugandans are working hard to reconstruct their country, but it is a struggle because:

    The price of coffee, their main export crop, is very vulnerable to world market fluctuations.

    20% of the coffee export earnings went to service foreign bank debts. Uganda paid much more to the UK and other western banks than it received in aid from these countries. Fortunately this is now changing.

    Malnutrition is still widespread: on average people receive 5% less than the minimum acceptable calories daily and 14% of children die before age 5 from diseases which good feeding and clean water could prevent.

How we are helping

Busoga link project for Cattle AI (Completed and Ongoing)

Busoga is a fertile area above Jinja at the source of the Nile. By 1998 Dolen Ffermio had completed the “Tarw Botel” scheme in Busoga, training and equipping 12 cattle inseminators to use Friesian semen to improve the yields of the local Soga breed of cattle from an average of 1.5 litres a day to 18 litres a day from a second Friesian cross. There are now many of these improved crosses in Busoga and just one can make a dramatic difference in the quality of life of a rural family, providing plenty of milk for growing children with the excess being sold to provide money for school fees, uniforms and medicines (there is no NHS in Uganda)

Busoga and Teso Goat Improvement project (Started and Ongoing)

The success of the cattle AI scheme prompted people from the poorest sections of society in Busoga, who do not have enough land to maintain even one cow, to ask our inseminators if a goat improvement scheme could be started. There had also been requests to extend the service being provided to the terribly poor area of Teso because that had suffered badly from the after effects of Idi Amin’s reign of terror, the subsequent civil war and from northern cattle raiders. The male population had been hit badly and two groups were selected for the scheme in Teso, one being made up entirely of widows and orphans. The project was set up with the AIM to increase meat and milk production in order to combat malnutrition in the children and to improve the quality of life for rural families. The METHOD was to be by upgrading the small local goats by cross breeding with larger breeds – Boer goats or Anglo-Nubian goats – to increase meat and milk production. Although milking goats is not traditional in Uganda there is increasing interest in this aspect.

The key to success of the project is the women, who do 75% of the farm work and also bear the main responsibility for family welfare. Extra meat and milk from improved goats will enable them to nourish the young children, improve their own health for work, and they will be able to use the money from the sale of surplus milk to pay school and medical expenses thus making an overall improvement in family life.

Meat Increase

Milk Increase

Funds are being/were raised to do the following:

1    To buy 36 improved bucks of Boer or Toggenburg breed for village groups to serve their own local does. The South African Boer will produce a larger meat breed and the Toggenburg will improve the milk yield.
2    To establish a pedigree breeding unit for these exotic breeds in Busuga to ensure a future supply.
3    To train 14 veterinary assistants in improved goat management and artificial insemination of goats who will, in turn, train the village farmers.
4    To provide motor cycles and equipment for 2 project supervisors.

The project was beset with many problems from the start. Initially it could not get the improved goats to start the programme as it had been planned to import them from Kenya but the Ugandan government had placed a world wide ban on the importation of livestock, semen and embryos because of BSE in the UK. There were very few Boer goats in Uganda and these were prohibitively expensive, but one 50% Boer buck was obtained to be shared between the two groups in Teso.  Over the next 3 years, little was done by Dolen Ffermio because of the outbreak of Foot and Mouth in the UK and because of the importation ban still being in place and the sad loss of one of the prime movers of Dolen Ffermio, John Jones Pentre Cefn, Llansilin. However, Mae Tortajada, previously a vet in Llanfyllin, who was working on draught cattle projects in Teso kept an eye on the groups and saw that success had been achieved because the one part-Boer buck had fathered many fast growing kids and as a result of this the women’s group had almost doubled its membership. Another consequence was that Moses, an agricultural extension volunteer, had started 8 new groups in a very impoverished, high AIDS incidence area, sourcing improved bucks himself and encouraged the groups to build excellent goat houses and establish forage plots.

Subsequently the Ugandan government relaxed its importation ban and flew in a number of Boer goats from South Africa. We negotiated to obtain some of these to station 50% or 75% Boer bucks with our inseminators in Busoga to continue to support the women’s groups and to help initiate a novel youth employment program in Teso. (See Kumi Orphans Project below).

With the relaxation of the importation ban, artificial insemination and embryo transfer were also available to the group by importing frozen and fresh semen and embryos of Boer goats and dairy breeds. This allows the establishment of breeding centres within the country. Artificial insemination sees the production of 50 – 75% Boer or dairy bucks for service at village level that will have greater resistance to disease and will be easier to manage. With embryo transfer, apart from the obvious advantage of importing tiny embryos compared to live animals, the exotic breed kids gain vital antibodies to local disease from their local breed mothers.

Survival of indigenous breeds is of great importance in terms of biodiversity and these breeds have unique resistance to disease and adverse climate.  The Ugandan government and Dolen Ffermio have strategies to ensure that indigenous breeds are protected

                                                                                                                                                       Click for top

Kumi Orphans Project (Started and Ongoing)

Arising out of the goat improvement project a further project was started to focus on the plight of orphans in the Kumi district. It was founded and is run by our colleagues in Uganda, Miriam and Emmanuel Maraka. Orphans in this part of Uganda are not placed in orphanages but are usually looked after by members of their extended family or concerned villagers.  However, these families struggle to provide for their own children, and especially to keep them in secondary school.  Funds are raised mainly through gift catalogues, both at Christmas and throughout the year, where people can buy a local female goat, the use of an improved male goat, laying hens and orange tree seedlings for orphans or primary school age; together with specialised training and bikes for older orphans.  These gifts provide a lifeline to the orphans and their carer families.  More details on the gifts and how they benefit the orphans can be found by going to page How to Help

Miriam and Emmanuel spend a great deal of their time and take great care to prepare the communities where orphans are given gifts.  They first meet the community leaders to discuss the aims and intentions of the Orphan Project.  This is followed by a meeting of the whole community and a small committee is formed to oversee the Project on a day-to-day basis.  The volunteer youth workers are chosen from among the older orphans and they and the committee members are trained by Miriam and Emmanuel before any gifts are distributed.  In their words, “The aim is to ensure that the orphans and their carer families will make the best use of their gifts.”  They then, together with members of Dolen Ffermio, carefully monitor the Project at all stages.

Up to now Miriam and Emmanuel are working in 6 communities which together have 1200 households with over 8,000 children.  So far 420 children have received gifts and 300 youth workers and 54 community leaders have been trained.  The huge success of the 2008 Christmas catalogue will enable them to move into more communities and help many, many more orphans during the coming year.

Read Emmanuel’s letter of thanks on the Uganda News page.

                                                                                                                                                       Click for top