Sustainable Development Goals Project (SDGP)
- 25,000 smallholders included in organic value chains have doubled their organic sesame and soybean yields and increased their net farm income by 170% on average.
- 1,250 Village Savings & Loans Associations strengthened
- 30 Local Seed Businesses included as sesame seed suppliers
- 8 Area Coordinators and 125 Field Officers employed
- 125 commission-based Buying Agents contracted
- 625 VSLAs have accessed and repaid micro-loans for productive use (note that funding of the credit programme is not part of SDGP budget)
- 35 local service providers support farmers (e.g. ploughing service)
- Sesame and shea processing facilities operational
- Organic and food safety certification of cotton, sesame and shea value chains
- Shea trees survey and documented; 50,000 shea seedlings planted
- EUR 13 million paid out over 3 annual crop seasons to farmers for supply of organic soybean, sesame and shea nuts
- 1,800 tons of organic sesame seed, 1,800 tons of organic sesame oil and 1,000 tons of organic shea butter exported to Europe
- 4,000 tons of sesame and shea cake sold to livestock farmers
2020-2026
Project Overview:
The project addresses the high levels of poverty in Northern Uganda by empowering formerly internally displaced people and settled refugees to sustainably rebuild their livelihoods through their inclusion in remunerative organic value chains.
The project targets 25,000 smallholder farmers, enabling them to access the international market.
The farmers will be organized in Village Savings & Loans Associations (VSLAs). Targeted farmers participate in training and demonstration of climate-smart good agricultural and post-harvest practices to increase their yields by 100 % on average and supply high-quality food-safe raw material to GADC.
Taking advantage of naturally occurring shea trees and strong demand for organic shea butter in the international market, a new organic shea value chain will be created providing additional income to the rural communities; this will also protect shea trees from being cut for charcoal production aside from activities to support the new planting of shea trees to secure future supply
Local Seed Businesses (LSBs) will be supported to propagate and supply quality sesame seeds and shea seedlings.
The project is implemented by a public-private partnership led by Do It from the Netherlands in cooperation with Ugandan partners Gulu Agricultural Develop Company (GADC), Eye Opener Initiative, and Nwoya and Lamwo District Governments.
Do It provides access to the European market for organic sesame and shea butter and delivers expertise in market requirements, organic standards, food safety standards, quality control, traceability and value chain certification.
GADC manages project implementation in Uganda, delivers technical training to soybean and sesame farmers, shea nut collectors and LSBs, and has set up a platform to deliver information to growers.
GADC processes sesame and will, in the future, process shea nuts, and takes care of marketing the cotton lint and seeds. Eye Opener Initiative (with Urithi) provides training and assistance to strengthen VSLAs, provides training on improved household nutrition, ensures the gender-responsiveness of the intervention, and oversees MEL.
The two district governments facilitate the formation and registration of VSLAs, have implemented a system for hyperlocal rainfall and pest monitoring, and have built and are maintaining an inventory of shea trees.