Late rains worsens precarious food supply in Uganda

The people of Patongo in Northern Uganda where we work are being severely affected by drought. As if they don't have enough to cope with, rebuilding their lives after twenty years of conflict, now the seasonal rains are late. Below is the first of three updates from Patongo. This one features the late rains; the last two will feature our plans for malaria prevention and the progress being made by the lay counselors who are part of the Patongo Counselling Community Outreach [PCCO]. 

Late rains

The seasonal rains that usually arrive in Patongo by now have still not come, preventing farmers from planting any crops.  People are becoming worried about the inevitable food shortages that will occur in a few months when there is nothing to harvest.  Because of this unwelcome delay, farmers are not expecting their first harvest of groundnuts, a staple crop, until August or September, even though the groundnuts are usually harvested in July.

Unfortunately, northern Uganda has been experiencing erratic rain patterns for the last few years.  Last year, unpredictable rain meant that most of Patongo’s groundnuts were ruined.  This year’s delay further exacerbates the already precarious food supply.

How Network for Africa and its partners are helping

Water and food conservation

Network for Africa is working with local community leaders in Patongo to determine how to collect and save rainwater when it does eventually arrive, and the best way to disseminate that information to everyone in the community. 

We also plan to experiment with ways of preserving fruit, such as drying mangoes, so that they can be saved to eat later.

Our Outreach Counselors, who provide counselling services in Patongo, have already gained the trust of the community and their advice is in high demand. They are well-placed to train others in the community in techniques like water and food conservation.

Community vegetable gardens

While we and our Patongo partners can’t make the rainy season start on time, we can help the community strategically use the land and water that is available, and to recover traditional techniques used to maximize the farming season.  To this end, we are working with Slow Food to plant three vegetable gardens in Patongo.  Slow Food is a global, grassroots organisation committed to supporting the local and sustainable production of food.  Slow Food assigns an expert agronomist to work with a community to assess their food/farming needs and resources and to then create small-scale vegetable gardens specifically tailored to that community.  We hope many more people in Patongo will follow suit and start to grow their own vegetables.