10th Annual Indigenous Traditional Food & Seed Fair - Uganda

30 October 2020. Indigenous Food and Seed Fair happening - organised by PELUM. 

Participatory Ecological Land Use Management (PELUM) Association is a regional network of over 250 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 small-scale farmers and the 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.

You can download the Strategic Plan (2017-2021) or read the PELUM Uganda Brochure or The PELUM Uganda Case Statement for more details

 

Related:

29 October 2020. 2nd National Agroecology Actors' Symposium 2020 here at Silver Springs Hotel, Bugolobi.

The guest of honor and FAO country representative, Mr. Antonio Querido officially opened the 2nd National Agroecology Actors' Symposium 2020.

Keynote Presentation: Agroecology for healthy indigenous plants and consumers - Dr. Fred Kabi, Senior Lecturer, College of Agriculture and Environmental Science, Makerere University

Panel discussion

• Dr Fred Kabi,Makerere University
• Hon. Francis Gonahasa, Parliament of Uganda
• Hakim Baliraine, ESAFF Uganda
• Mr. Alex Bambona, Ministry of Agriculture Animal Industry and Fisheries (MAAIF)
• Moderated by: Odongotho

Regional experience sharing sessions: 

Central, Northern (Lango and Acholi), Eastern (Busonga,

Bugisu and Karamoja), Western (Ankole, Kigezi and Rwenzori)-Live broadcast showing various

indigenous foods and seed

Food Fair

The major objective of the food fair was to showcase the actual and potential contribution of agroecology on indigenous plant health, conservation of agricultural biodiversity and food sovereignty of smallholder farming communities and Uganda at large.

1. To showcase different agroecological practices, indigenous and traditional foods and seeds from different Ugandan societies, their preservation, preparation, innovation/ value addition and consumption.
2. To create awareness on the value of indigenous/ traditional food systems, agroecology and their contribution in strengthening the resilience capacity of smallholder farming communities to climate change related stresses, pandemics (such as COVID-19) and other biotic and abiotic stresses
3. To provide a platform for dialogue and experience sharing on the policy frameworks, benefits, current threats and challenges faced by agroecology and strategies to promote them.

Related:

PELUM TALK SHOW: Strategies for scaling up agroecology in Uganda

This video depicts the theme 'sharing communities' under which the Green Action Week 2020 was commemorated. During the event, a community seed bank bank was launched with one of PELUM Uganda's member organisation - MPIFA.

Meet Joseph. Joseph cares about his fellow farmers who are finding that expensive seeds are preventing them from being able to plant sustainably during harvest. Joseph gave up his own building to be refurbished as a community seed bank to help each other as well as help the environment.

“𝙄 𝙘𝙖𝙡𝙡 𝙤𝙣 𝙛𝙖𝙧𝙢𝙚𝙧𝙨 𝙩𝙤 𝙘𝙤𝙢𝙚 𝙖𝙣𝙙 𝙨𝙝𝙖𝙧𝙚 𝙨𝙚𝙚𝙙𝙨 𝙖𝙢𝙤𝙣𝙜 𝙤𝙪𝙧𝙨𝙚𝙡𝙫𝙚𝙨…𝙜𝙤 𝙗𝙖𝙘𝙠 𝙩𝙤 𝙥𝙡𝙖𝙣𝙩, [𝙖𝙣𝙙] 𝙖𝙛𝙩𝙚𝙧 𝙝𝙖𝙧𝙫𝙚𝙨𝙩 𝙬𝙚 𝙧𝙚𝙩𝙪𝙧𝙣 𝙬𝙝𝙖𝙩 𝙬𝙚 𝙗𝙤𝙧𝙧𝙤𝙬𝙚𝙙 𝙗𝙖𝙘𝙠 𝙩𝙤 𝙩𝙝𝙚 𝙘𝙤𝙢𝙢𝙪𝙣𝙞𝙩𝙮 𝙨𝙚𝙚𝙙 𝙗𝙖𝙣𝙠, 𝙖𝙣𝙙 𝙩𝙝𝙖𝙩 𝙬𝙞𝙡𝙡 𝙝𝙚𝙡𝙥 𝙈𝙥𝙞𝙜𝙞 𝙙𝙞𝙨𝙩𝙧𝙞𝙘𝙩 𝙩𝙤 𝙜𝙧𝙤𝙬.” – Joseph Mukasa

PELUM Uganda wanted to share a story that showed it was possible to revive traditional seed sharing between community members in a way that improves farmers’ access to quality and diverse seeds and leads to more resilient and self-reliant communities. They wanted to make it personal and relateable, so they chose to show it through interviewing one person at one community seed bank, taking photographs of the process to create the seed bank and then coming back later in the week to photograph the seed bank in action, being used by the community.