The Real Green Revolution - Greenpeace UK

f e rt i l i z e r, but re s e a rch is being undertaken
as how to best utilize waste from the food
p rocessing industry (Scialabba, 2000)
Uganda is highly dependent on agriculture,
which accounts for 45% of GDP, and
employs 80% of the population. Coffee is
a major crop, accounting for 40-70% of
export earnings. In the past, political
instability over two decades hindered
agricultural modernization, and in
consequence fertilizers and pesticides are not
widely used except on tea, coffee and other
export crops (e.g. tomatoes and salads). In
general, most farms are small-scale and
organic by default. Many small farmers do
not keep livestock and therefore face a
problem in building and maintaining soil
fertility. The government is deeply committed
to modernizing agriculture, to drawing it out
of subsistence mode, eradicating poverty and
increasing capacity for agri-food processing.
However, they intend doing this along a
conventional high input/output model. At the
same time state support is being cut back,
so responsibility for extension will fall
increasingly to the private sector. These
elements of policy are antithetical to the
development of an organic movement which
feels it could otherwise fill the government’s
objectives of reducing poverty and hunger.
The task facing the organic movement in
Uganda is to convince the state and farmers
not to go down this path but to focus on
developing natural methods of building soil
fertility and controlling pests (Wajje, 2000).
The Ugandan organic movement held its first
conference in January 2001 to mobilize
support and unity across the sector. It intends
to set up a certification committee, which
aims to develop domestic capacity for
standard setting and certification.
Organic coffee, sesame and cotton are
already grown and exported (van Elzakker
and Tulip, 2000). One project, run by the the
Lango Co-operative, has more than 12,000
farmers in 266 villages involved in growing
organic cotton and sesame over more than
100,000 acres. This project was initiated by
a foreign development agency but has
experienced problems through growing too
fast. For example, it has had problems in
securing access to markets and providing
sufficient infrastructure – both in terms of
storage and processing capacity and
extension facilities. Management of the
project has recently been taken over by Bo
Weevil who are trying to put the project back
on a sound footing and seeking the necessary
finances to provide the infrastructure to meet
the expectations of farmers who have
converted to organic production. The
Ugandan organic movement believes that
10-15% of Uganda’s coffee exports could
realistically be certified as organic within
5-10 years (Wajje, 2000), but the lessons of
Lango show it is not only the farming
element that needs to be developed in order
to establish successful schemes.
There is also a strong NGO sector promoting
organic agriculture within Uganda. Luyiga
(1997) identifies thirty NGOs directly
involved in this field. Church organizations
(of a number of different denominations) are
heavily represented and play an important
role in fostering rural development. The
Department of Social and Economic
Development (SED) is one such organization.
It runs an organic demonstration farm and
has trained over 300 animateurs and almost
1600 farmers in soil fertility techniques, soil
and water conservation, agroforestry, pest
control methods and the role of livestock.
Those who have been involved in the project
have noticed increases in food production
and household nutritional status (Luyiga,
1997). Other NGOs include the Anziaceni
Integrated Rural Development Project in
Arua, which works with school drop-outs –
teaching them the principles of sustainable
agriculture and environmental protection –
and the Bukonzo Sustainable Agriculture
Development Association, which promotes
organic dairy farming in Kasese (ibid.). More
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