Participatory Evaluation of our 2008 - Action Against Hunger

have enhanced the complementarity of FFS inputs contributing to the household economy and
increased the already limited local access to disease resistant cassava cuttings.
The causes behind the missed opportunity are admittedly vague, but it appears that ACF intended
for all 320 FFS members to receive cassava cuttings. Despite this plan, actual date of receiving the
cuttings came unexpectedly as a result of reportedly poor coordination with FAO who supplied
them. Participant land had not yet been prepared as a result, but many of the cuttings were
becoming too dry for planting to be delayed. Therefore the entire consignment was distributed to
households engaged in other activities in the North (also funded by FAO under the same
agreement but not participating in the FFSs) who were able to plant the cuttings immediately.
Despite cassava multiplication initiated with these other groups, the participants and benefits were
outside the FFS programme and represent another missed opportunity for complementary inputs
and impact.
Including cassava in the FFS programme would have contributed to household food sources and,
to a lesser extent, income sources. Once plants matured, new cuttings also could have been
circulated and sold by members, further increasing the programmatic benefits of cassava while
facilitating increased local access to disease resistant varieties. Cassava cultivation could even
help create possibilities for value addition activities like chip production and sale. The following
photograph illustrates the difference in quality and resilience between two cassava stands planted
at approximately the same time. 7 The leaves on left are infected with cassava mosaic virus (CMV),
a plant pathogenic begomovirus transmitted by white flies that feed on the plant, 8 and has
consequently stunted development compared with the large green leaves of the resistant variety
(akena) on the right disseminated by ACF through FAO.
Figure 10. Comparison of a healthy cassava plant and one infected with CMV
3.3 Enhanced Asset Generation and Management Capacity
Asset generation and management have become an increasingly prominent objectives of ACF FSL
programming in Uganda over the last two years. Although not an explicit objective of the 2008
farmer field schools, a range of income generating activities has been undertaken under different
programmes throughout the North with corresponding training in entrepreneurialism, bookkeeping,
and small business management. Interestingly, evaluation of this output offers some of the best
7 Photograph taken in Koch Goma sub-county, Gulu, in October 2008 (not an ACF FFS area), but depicts the same stock
of cassava cuttings received from FAO and originally intended for FFS members.
8 See http://www.bspp.org.uk/publications/new-disease-reports/ndr.php?id=011052 and
http://www.tropicalwhiteflyipmproject.cgiar.org/docs/PDF-book-wf/5.3.pdf
Action Against Hunger Uganda - 28 - Farmer Field School Evaluation