AGRICULTURE GROWING AND LIVING FOR GOD IN UGANDA

It is very easy to separate the work we do to live from the faith we practise and celebrate at Church but they should not be separated! God has provided an amazing world for us to live in with a huge variety of plants we can grow and eat that will keep us strong and healthy. These same plants will also provide the soil with what it needs to renew its strength and provide yet more crops in an ongoing cycle – but this only works if we look after the things God has given us and farm in a way that respects this natural system. At the Baptist Union of Uganda (supported by BMS World Mission) we work with community groups to farm in a way that protects and enhances the soil, crops, trees and animals that provide the food, fuel and fibre we need to live. Combining established conservation farming techniques with sound and proven agricultural science we are able to help farmers move from subsistence to sustainable farming systems that protect and enhance farm bio-diversity as well as increasing yield and improving livelihoods. This may sound like a utopian dream but it is possible and these techniques have been used successfully in many African countries including Uganda. Critical to this capacity building is being able to work within an agri-business system as a whole, so training and guidance on farming as a business is also offered. Because many of the communities we work with understand that as farmers they have more strength when they work together, we also assist them in setting up formal Farmers Associations and Cooperatives, using the expertise of delivery partners such as Ugandan Christian Lawyers Fraternity and World Vision Uganda.

If you want to hear more, please contact us and we will do our best to help. Our current work is concentrated in 12 communities in the Gulu, Busia and Lowero Districts, as well as Tanzania. At present we are delivering several projects for Operation Agri; please visit their website for details: http://www.operationagri.org.uk/oa/Uganda.html

As a Christian organisation we know this gift of knowledge from God is for the whole community, therefore we include all - regardless of gender, religion or ethnicity.

Paul Kyalimpa or Alex Vickers Baptist Union of Uganda PO Box 7508 Baptist House, Bombo Road Wandegaya, Kampala. Tel: +256 414 532 181 Email: buu@utonline.co.ug (mark it as Agriculture in the subject box).

Paul Kyalimpa demonstrating the construction of a composted raised bed system in Gulu on behalf of Operation Agri.