Travels

“It is in our hands to create a better world for all who live in it”

Nelson Mandela

Having already travelled across 2/3 of Uganda, it was now the turn for some days in the Southern Province.

First destination was Mbarara, with its 200,000 population, one of the industrial hearts of Uganda. It didn’t bring us much luck since, as soon as we reach, our car broke down for the first time. After waiting for several hours by a gas station in the suburbs, we were ready to hit the road again.

In the Southern region we came across one among the most affected regions affected by climate change in the world. The farmers’ local community showed us old photos and took us accross the old jungle. What once was a green and wet area, full with tropical crops, like coffe, bananas and pineapples, in the past few years, since a 80% drop in rainfall, has become a golden and dry phantom area.

After a three-day visit of the countryside, we agreed, with the CAO of Isingiro, to study a develop a macro water collecting and management system to be funded by FAO and World Bank.

Every 200 Ha of arable land a water collection basin will be created, large enough to satisfy the water needs for agriculture and livestock needs during the dry season. Depending on the quantity and the area, water will be taken from rain, boreholes, rivers and lakes. From the water basins, shared pumping stations will feed a network of underground pipelines and modern irrigation systems.

Next stop: Kampala for Government meetings!

“First comes Coke, then asphalt, then power lines, then maybe education, justice, and human rights.”

– Jeffrey Gettleman, Love, Africa: A Memoir of Romance, War and Survival

After a few days in Kampala, it was time for me to jump on the car and start my work in the countryside.

Everytime I begin a new trip in Africa I always have that thrill, that addictive feeling of new adventure and that day it was exactly like this.

Of course, it wasn’t my first trip on the road but, in some places of the world, you know, life can still suprise you everyday and you never know what to expect when you wake up in the morning.

My first destination was Soroti, in the Eastern Province where, after some visits to local farms, I had to meet the famers community. Looking at the maps I saw the distance: 295 km and I started to guess about the duration of the trip. As always, I was too optimistic since it took almost 10 h.

At least I had time to do some sightseeing on the road. In Jinja I got to see the Source of the Nile and crossed it. Crossing the Nile is a state of mind, your thoughts immediately go to the depth and lenght of its travel through Africa, its relentless flow marks the unchanging run of time.

At 10pm I finally arrived at my hotel in Soroti.

The following day, after a restful night, I drove to Serere to meet the CAO (the mayor, not elected but nominated by the Government) and join the local farmers community for an open class on the importance of irrigation for modern farming.

During the day I had the opportunity to talk with dozens of small and medium scale farmers (mainly rice and banana growers), worried about the effects of global warming and climate change. We discussed a lot about the issues of running an agricultural business in Uganda and I saw that problems are pretty similar everywhere in the world, Europe, America, Asia and Africa.

Undoubtedly, in the past years, quality of life has been improving in almost any part of Africa (of course not in those countries that are at war, like South Sudan, I hope to have time to write about South Sudan as well), therefore food consumption is growing and changing.

Meat is replacing traditional recipes based on corn and rice, like ugali (the equivalent of polenta in italian cuisine).

Although all these “improvements” in the macroeconomic indices, the situation, especially in the countryside and for small and medium scale farmers, remains very fragile. A few factors are restricting the development of rural areas (and this applies not only to Uganda or Serere, but to all African countries):

• Access to credit. In Africa it is almost impossible to get project financing, especially for small scale investments. In place of giving away things for free why don’t the NGO use their money to finance (without interest) small projects? It would help to inject liquidity and to make young entrepreneurs responsible for their projects.
• Lack of technical training (regardless of the field of work). A small example, related to my work. In Africa it is very difficult to find fruit and vegetables out of season because farmers don’t have the knowledge to grow off-seasonly.
• Lack of infrastructure, which destroyes the development of the internal market.
• Lack of market study. Many times African companies only compete on best price, without giving importance to service and/or quality of products. They simply loweri their prices dangerously. Since they kill their margins, they kill their ability and possibility to make investments in the future.