Cassava offers food, hope in northeastern Uganda

Photo: WFPSome 16,000 residents of the dry Karamoja region are learning to cultivate cassava, a drought-resistent crop that can help the area overcome its longstanding hunger problems.

World Food Programme (WFP) has launched a new cassava cuttings programme that may improve the fortunes of poverty-stricken Karamoja’s residents.

The programme targets nearly 16,000 residents, who will receive food and cash as incentives for cultivating cassava cuttings in community gardens.

A drought-resistant, high-yielding plant, cassava can contribute immensely to a family’s food security. The project’s participants will share the windfalls from their harvests.

The programme, implemented in close collaboration with the Food and Agricultural Organisation, reflects WFP’s shift from distributing food to also looking for more long-term ways to address hunger.

Sisulu plants the first cassava cuttings in Namalera. Photo: Lydia Wamala/WFP“WFP is not planning to do away with food aid,” said WFP deputy executive director Sheila Sisulu. “However, we will also help the people of Karamoja invest in projects that can increase production, protect the environment, help with water harvesting and contribute to enhanced and varied means to earn incomes.”

Uganda’s poorest region, Karamoja is prone to droughts, partly as a result of climate change. A destructive mix of natural disasters, violence, severe environmental degradation, poor infrastructure and weak agriculture has left the 1.2 million people living here vulnerable to hunger. Over 80 per cent of them live below the poverty line.

As Sisulu planted the first cuttings, Betty Akol, a mother of four and guardian to up to 16 relatives, said: “We are excited. We will be able to sell cassava and earn some money, and we can replant it and share the cuttings with others.

“This year has been dry, but we shall wait,” Akol added. “Whatever time the rain comes, we will plant.”

WFP has been providing school meals, trading food for work on community projects and, more recently, offering health and nutrition programmes for mothers and children.