The IRC has sponsored a number of public events in northern Uganda to promote improved access to markets for farmers who are re-establishing their livelihoods after having spent years in displaced person's camps.
The "Farmer Field Days," held in December and January in Lira and Kitgum districts, attracted over 2,500 farmers and offered many their first chance to display and sell goods since they were displaced by the war between the government and the rebel Lord's Resistance Army.
"The Days were a success; most farmers sold about 50 percent of what they brought," said Michael Opio Ambrose, the IRC's economic development manager in the region. "More importantly, they established relationships with buyers so that when the next harvest comes around the buyers can go straight to the farmers."
The Farmer Field Days are part of a programme funded by the Swedish International Development Agency (SIDA) to help stimulate economic growth, and revitalise the agriculture and livestock industry in northern Uganda. The war has left the north's countryside, once referred to as Uganda's breadbasket, barren and its population dependent on aid.
For buyers, however, this was no charitable event. Okiya Samson, a trader from Kampala, said he had come to a field day to buy beans and millet "because the price and quality are good."
Farmers brought a range of crops, including sesame, peanuts, cassava, chickens, goats, beans and honey.
The IRC supplied equipment to the events such as grinders, oil presses and rice threshers, which were demonstrated and then raffled off in order to stimulate demand for the tools, which are quite new to the region.
"The hope is that by seeing the raffle winners boosting their businesses with new tools, other community members will be motivated to purchase a piece of equipment themselves," Ambrose said. "To encourage this, the IRC is also subsidising some of the equipment that is purchased."
The two-year programme also plans to help farmers form aid groups and provide connections to private companies, among other things
[ Any views expressed in this article are those of the writer and not of Reuters. ]
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