By Mary Asujo
After journeying for 27 years, PELUM Uganda has again designed a five year strategic plan to deepen interventions on Agro-ecological through promotion of sustainable natural resources management to farming communities to embrace Agro-ecological markets and improve governance of natural resources.
The Country Coordinator, PELUM Uganda, Josephine Akia Luyimbazi, told journalists in an interview today at Hotel Africana that since its inception, PELUM Uganda has impacted on over 3,000,000 smallholder farmers .
“We are a network of stakeholders promoting agroecology which promotes among smallholder farmers. We want farming communities to sustainable agricultural production to and innovative Agro-ecological value chain in order to produce safer and more food,” Akia noted.
A Representative from Food Agricultural Organization (FAO), Dr Charles Owach who read a speech on behalf of the Country Representative, Mr Querido Antonio Luis Ferreira commended PELUM Uganda for the partnership and pledged to continue working with PELUM to ensure smallholder farmers embrace sustainable agricultural production which in turn will guard against food insecurity.
“Congratulations on your new plan. It’s sad that globally 9% of the population live in extreme poverty and 690 million people are under nourished. It’s good to know that there is a consensus that everybody is committed to embrace Agro-ecological agriculture,” said Antonio.
Antonia noted that its good news that there is a consensus by leaders, farmers that everybody has the desire to encourage Agro-ecological agriculture and the need to promote it.
Akia said that the strategic plan was developed from experiences, lessons learned and most importantly the demands of the people PELUM Uganda serves through the network of her members, to ensure that interventions and engagements remain relevant to the new and emerging trends in development for the next five year period. The strategic plan has been aligned to the aspirations of the third National Development Plan (NDPIII), the Uganda’s Vision 2040 and the United Nation’s Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) to ensure its relevance.
PELUM Uganda is supported by German Cooperation, GIZ in cooperation with Bio vision Africa trust, and PELUM Association among others.
The Strategic Plan
Akia explained that PELUM Uganda Strategic Plan which focuses on “Nurturing our Agro-Ecosystems for Sustainable Livelihoods and Profitable Income for Generations” has the GOAL to enhance improved livelihoods and resilient capacity of farming communities in Uganda.
“Driven by the core values of Accountability and transparency, professionalism and innovation; this strategy will contribute to the achievement of PELUM Uganda’s vision of Empowered and Resilient smallholder farming communities sustainably utilizing their natural resources,” she added.
Participatory Ecological Land Use Management (PELUM) Uganda is part of the PELUM Association a regional network of over 280 Civil Society Organizations in 12 countries in East, Central and Southern Africa working in the area of participatory ecological land use management. The Association works to improve the livelihoods of smallholder farmers and sustainability of farming communities, by fostering ecological land use management. Country chapters include Uganda, Kenya Tanzania, Rwanda, Malawi, Zambia, Zimbabwe, Lesotho, Botswana, South Africa, Swaziland and Ethiopia.
PELUM Uganda was constituted in 1995, as a network of likeminded civil society organizations working to improve the livelihood of smallholder farmers and the sustainability of rural communities through fostering ecological land use management. The network has since grown in number and influence to currently 66 –member organizations operating in 122 districts in Uganda reaching approximately three million farmers (3,000,000) smallholder farmers.
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