Prosper Mama Africa Starts Farmers Model Village In Hoima

By Dr. Mudde Barnabas

Hoima, Uganda: Prosper Mama Africa an NGO registered in the USA has launched a model to improve productivity, livelihood, and incomes of local communities in a pilot village of Butebele in Kyabigambire Sub-county, Hoima.

The initiative is also meant to complement the many interventions by the government and other development partners through various programs. However, despite all the above interventions, a baseline survey conducted by Prosper Mama Africa revealed that the poverty levels of the communities in Butebele are still very high, they don’t use modern farming practices resulting in food and nutrition insecurity, there is absence of commercial farming and they mainly rely on subsistence farming, they lack access to markets, they are not organized into groups, they have traditional attitudes and mindsets since most farmers have been in poverty for a long time and have become accustomed to this desperate state.

The farmers don’t have alternative economic activities and as a consequence poor incomes. In order to increase production, productivity, improved livelihood, peoples’ wealth, a deliberate effort is required to unlock the potentials and pull the people out of the vicious cycle of poverty.

It is against this background that Prosper Mama Africa an NGO registered in the USA intends to improve productivity, livelihood, and incomes of local communities in a pilot village of Butebele in Kyabigambire Subcounty. The proposed model is premised on three pillars namely; promotion of agricultural mechanization, promotion of community farming and production for the markets. The goal is to ensure food security and income for the residents of Butebele model village through a mindset shift in the community from being accustomed to being poor to have an urgent desire to become prosperous.

The Director of Prosper Mama Africa, Mr. David Lukwago visited the proposed model village and was informed of the need to involve all stakeholders and partners in an effort to improve accessibility to improved and modern production technologies.

Regarding the Pillar on promoting community farming, this has partially been achieved. The team has done mobilization and conducted sensitization on group dynamics. They will work with the Bunyoro kingdom to assist in mobilization. The community has already been established with a name coined from the founding organization, the name is “Proper Mama Butele”.

The group has also elected an executive. For the pillar on promoting mechanization, Prosper Mama Africa has facilitated the hiring of a tractor to plough the fields for the proposed model village. A total of 50 acres was planned to be ploughed. Prosper Mama Africa will organize and provide resources for all the steps along the production value chain.  They will also engage experts from NARO to give technical backstopping on improving land preparation, agronomic practices, pest management, high yielding marketable varieties, drought-tolerant varieties, nutrient-rich varieties of the common crops the community has been growing.

Regarding the provision of markets, they have engaged prominent businesses in Hoima like Mr. Magara to have discussions as regards purchasing of the products from the model village.