By Stephen Candia

For many years, the residents of Lobule Sub County in Koboko district endured torrent life due to dry long spells that adversely affected their agricultural output. 

Women were especially hardest hit as for various reasons, much of the burden of fending for the family rested on their shoulders while men took the backseat.

The situation worsened because of the influx of over three thousand Congolese refugees whose presence exerted pressure on natural resources. 

As a result of the increasing human pressure on the environment, the once fertile, green and forested area has become extensively bare as more trees have been cut down indiscriminately for firewood and charcoal and clearing the land for cultivation.

In response, some of the women in Lobule Sub County decided to come together and form a savings and farmers group called Angili Women to collectively try and overcome the challenges of hunger, enhancing household incomes and the long dry spells.

They registered the group with the district production department.

Their dream came to reality in January this year (2024) after Koboko district officials linked them to the Rural Initiative for Community Empowerment (RICE West Nile), a local Civil Society Organization that conducted an outreach to Koboko to identify needy women and Children.

Upon reaching out to the Women and Lobule Sub County officials, RICE West Nile discovered that there was an urgent need to start conserving the only wetland in the area and support the women with water for irrigation and domestic use. 

Changed weather pattern

Before the onset of the refugees in the area, the authorities of Lobule Sub County and the locals say the area used to receive sufficient rainfall with two planting seasons from April to June and August to December.

The area had a nearby permanent river, which has now drastically lost most of its water volume.

There used to be bumper harvests according to the farmers who said they used to supply food items to Koboko town and some were exported to Yei in South Sudan.

As the season’s patterns gradually changed, characterized by erratic but violent rainfalls, and long periods of drought food for the local community became scarce and increasingly expensive.

Suleiman Banga, the local council three Chairman of Lobule Sub County, alluded that for the past four years, the area has been experiencing unusual weather patterns.

“Instead of producing food, the area now looks for food from Koboko town, DR Cong and South Sudan,” said Banga.

“Our farmers planted maize in March this year but all the maize dried in the field before maturity and it’s only in July that the rains came but destructively to the crop gardens and access roads,” Mr. Banga further noted

According to Gloria Kanini, the assistant agricultural officer at Lobule Sub County, there has been less involvement of women in production since the cultural norm does not allow them to own land and this has been worsened by increasing water scarcity and an increase in domestic violence in the Sub County.

“We go through a lot of challenges in trying to build resilience in containing these encounters,” Kanini said.

Enter RICE-WN with an irrigation scheme

Patrick Amacha Dagu, the project officer RICE West Nile, intimated that since the women had started producing vegetables in the dry season, they believed that supporting them with a mini-irrigation scheme would help offset the impact of the dry season.

“What we did was to quickly adjust our intervention to provide water and distribute it in the fields to enable the women to grow vegetables which were on high demand within the sub-county, in Koboko town and also undertake preservation of the water catchment areas,” said Dagu

From January to July this year which experienced a dry spell, the women were able to grow various vegetables and realized some revenue which they have used to increase the acreage of land for cultivation.

“From March up to July there were no rains and the women suffered to provide food and money for the children’s school fees because most of them either have undependable husbands or are living as single parents,” explained Dagu.

Group members testimony

Taisha Leila, a member of Angili Women, said since the irrigation scheme was established, they have grown and sold vegetables twice and that she has been able to realize over UGX 800,000 which she has never received before.

“We have decided to use the profit in the first season to procure seeds, open more land and pay casual labourers for planting crops,” Leila said.

Rehmah Candiru, another member of the Angili Women Farmers group, explained that since the rains have come though violently, she has reserved the irrigation water for the dry season, adding that she is hopeful of an improved and better life by the end of this year.

Rukia Ajonye, the chairperson Angili Women group says some of their spouses have started joining them after realizing that they now have some money and adequate food for consumption in the households.

The group has 30 members and their target is to help each of them own a semi-permanent three-roomed house, and a motorcycle and increase savings in their SACCO group in the next three years with the help of the irrigation scheme.

Meanwhile, Rashid Agele, the landlord of Angili Women Farmers Group said he used to grow tobacco but realized it destroyed the environment.

Then he decided to offer the land to the Women Group for vegetable and tree planting of which he has become a member.

Ashraf Mambo, the LC 5 chairman of Koboko district has commented that the intervention by RICE W. Nile has helped reduce the service delivery burden on the district by serving the most vulnerable and poor communities in the district.

He says the district is looking forward to working with more civil society organizations and development partners to attain its goal of improved service delivery for poverty alleviation among communities.

Pax Sakari, the executive director of RICE W. Nile says they decided to implement a module to answer the question of livelihoods, low incomes and environmental destruction.

After realizing the success of the irrigation scheme, the demand for similar projects has become overwhelming, requiring that the government prioritizes the scheme to mitigate the devastating effect of climate change, which is manifesting in long dry spells and destructive rain storms.

“The module of water for production in Lobule Sub-County is a women-founded and women-led project where we decided to put resources where it matters. The future belongs to them and the children in their care,” said Sakari.

The production of this story was supported by InfoNile in partnership with Palladium under the Climate-smart Agriculture reporting project.