Livelihood Program
SHED's take on livelihood in Uganda
Agriculture is the back born of Uganda’s economy contributing about 27% to the country’s GDP and earning the country approximately 3 trillion value in forex. Majority of young people in Uganda are employed in the informal agricultural sector. Increasing attention is placed on finding opportunities for young people in agricultural value chains or markets outside of production activities. SHED’s livelihood interventions focus on harnessing the potential offered by agribusiness to lift vulnerable people especially young people out of poverty.
Services offered by SHED:
- Entrepreneurship training
- Training in Agribusiness
- Buiness development services (financial literacy, group formation, drafting business plans and market linkages)
- Cooperative formation
Key accomplishments
- 2000 farmers have been equipped with knowledge and skills in Robusta coffee production using the Farmer Field School (FFS) extension methodology; this has increased the yield per unit area thereby bringing in more income to the smallholder farmers. In addition, demonstration plots have been set up in the project areas to facilitate adoption
- Collection activities of smallholder coffee farmers scattered over wide geographical area have been strengthened through farmer/ producer organizations (POs); this has helped to overcome scale disadvantages experienced in input acquisition as well as marketing.
- Viable and sustainable coffee marketing system has been enhanced through linkages between the farmer producer organizations and the market.
- Area under coffee production has been increased through increased access to clean improved planting material. This has been achieved through the establishment of coffee mother gardens and nurseries with elite seeds.
- Increased financial literacy among the producer organizations; this has been done by inculcating a culture of savings through the VSLA methodology. The farmers have progressively moved to borrowing from financial institutions for production purposes.
