Overall targets
To improve the livelihoods of people in Oyam & Kwania Districts.
Immediate targets
1. Organising the farmers in groups with the purpose of getting them an organic certification 2. Promoting farming practices that improves and conserves the environment. 3. Increasing their income, which will enable them to pay school fees for their children, buy medicine, pay medical treatments for their families and buy other nutritious foods
Target groups
The direct beneficiaries of this Citizen Participation Intervention include 200 small scale farmers and their families, resulting in a total of 1000-1400 people organised as 10 groups, 2 data collection officers, 10 trainers of trainers, 3 consultants to conduct Training of Trainers.
Resume
This intervention aims to empower the farmers and their organisations to have control of their agricultural data in order to get their own organic certification. The certification will improve their negotiating power on the national and international markets and enable them to get a better price for their produce. The intervention will explore how smart phones and internet technology can be used to collect and share relevant data between actors. Oyam and Kwania Districts are already leading producers of organic soybean in Uganda. Much of this soybean is exported to overseas markets. It is normally the international companies and middlemen who reap the benefits leaving farmers in most cases with nothing. They promise farmers high prices but when the crops are harvested they dump the prices leaving the farmers in a role as price takers. In conclusion the intervention aims to link the farmers to national and international markets by getting them an organic certification.