Some of our efforts have focused on education and outreach to the Mukono and Buikwe districts concerning agriculture, water, hygiene, sanitation and water handling all of which are related to the prevention of water borne disease. RASD is now very interested in social entrepreneurship and programs that create jobs for self sustainability of the rural people. RASD is focussing on helping small holder farmers participated in the market, value chain of their produce, and also developing a business model for water and sanitation marketing in the rural areas of Mukono and Buikwe districts. We remain focussed on education programs for orphans and vulnerable children so they can be self reliant in the future.

Our latest Agriculture Project:

Farmer Field School

This project seeks to equip horticultural farmers with skills, knowledge, technologies and competencies in production, processing and marketing of vegetable seed and fruits through practical sessions using the “Farmer Field School” approach. The training sessions were delivered by three trainers in partnership.

After clustering the farmers into different groups, the trainees were guided on the use of good farming methods in vegetable growing.

For example, the farmers learnt how to prepare the bed before planting, i.e. raising the bed, sterilizing the soil, making measurements for line spacing, manure application, mixing soil with manure, determining seed rate i.e. seed –soil ratio before planting, seed planting, setting up the nursery structure and watering of the nursery.

Vegetable seeds are very small and require a fine seedbed. So in preparation for planting the land was cleaned thoroughly removing all the tree stumps and any trash which could hinder seed germination. Since vegetables are short term crops, farmers were encouraged to apply organic fertilizers to improve soil fertility in order to result in higher yields. Manure was applied in the field following recommended spacing which varied from site to site depending on the slope of the field, soil drainage and likely irrigation method to be used per field.

Medical Support

RASD was working on Wound care project with Suubi Reachout Foundation Netherlands. More information on the project is yet to follow.

Agriculture

As exposed in the problem analysis the supply of food in the Greater Mukono area is still a major issue. The RASD believes that agriculture should play a fundamental role in eradicating to malnutrition, death, and escalated poverty.

RASD partnered with UC Davis, Makerere University, Uganda Christian University and Mukono Zonal Agricultural Research and Development Institute (MUZARDI) to implement a three-year horticultural research project to promote the production and marketing of indigenous leafy vegetables to increase household incomes using the farmer field school (FFS) approach and participatory market chain approach (PMCA). In this respect, up to 34 farmers groups have been formed in Mukono and Buikwe districts.

RASD linked up with the Centre for Agribusiness Initiative  (CABI) at Entebe NARO to implement a Good Seed Initiative project, focussing on production and marketing of indigenous vegetable seeds.

CABI facilitated capacity building of grass root farmers groups in seed production, seed storage, seed packaging and marketing. In collaboration with MANGO TREE, CABI and RASD, a Learning Aid was developed on Agronomy, Processing and Marketing of African Indigenous  Vegetable Seeds. CABI also helped to make formal contacts with seed companies. For example, Nkokonjeru Seed Farmer’s Group is selling seed directly to SIMLAW Seed Company, BUSIBA Seed Company AND Victoria Seeds. Major focus is on Egg plants, Red Amaranths and Nakati seeds.

With funding from Frank Guan, a friend and former Volunteers, RASD set up a demonstration garden for Local variety of Passion fruits managed by the RASD project manager Mr. Mwebe Samuel with other Farmers in Kigulu Village on Nkokonjeru.  RASD is coordinating the already existing Farmers Groups to grow more passion fruits which already have ready market with juice companies.

This will help to create jobs in the village and increase farmers’ incomes as one of the ways of ending rural poverty.

RASD Passion Fruit Demonstration garden at Kigulu Village Nkokonjeru

Water & Sanitation

The greater Mukono area still faces health disparities due to poor sanitation practices and water standards. Indeed, as a result of water-borne diseases, adults and children die of dehydration and other related complications. The RASD has recently carried out several projects to fight those problems through toilet construction,  Rain water harvesting, building wells, repairing boreholes, and creating awareness on proper sanitation, hygiene and safe water handling and management.

RASD Recent water projects

Past projects