Promoting Indigenous Vegetable production in Banga Village, Mukono District

Promoting Indigenous Vegetable production in Banga Village,  Mukono District: An Intervention

Facilitator: Prof.  Johnnie. W. F. Muwanga-Zake

Prepared by: Sandra Ndagire Kamenya

                       Reg. No. 2018-Ph41-1010

Introduction: This community is located on the shores of Lake Victoria in Banga Village, Mpata subcounty, Mukono District. It has for ages derived its livelihood from the Lake Victoria in terms of fishing. It has also engaged in agrarian practices mainly to produce food and a few cash crops. The major crops grown include bananas, coffee, maize, cassava, sweet potatoes, beans, ground nuts, fruits such as pineapples, oranges, mangos, passion fruits, watermelon. Other crops include indigenous vegetables like Nakati and entula (Solanum aethiopicum), doodo and spider plant, cabbage, egg plants, tomatoes, carrots, sweetpaper, onions among others. The commodities from this community are grown and sold to markets at Gaba landing site in Kampala district which is accessed across the lake from the landing site of Buule in Mukono district. The demand for these commodities is high and fetches a higher revenue when sold in Gaba, Kampala as opposed to selling them to markets in Mukono town. 

Recently the government of Uganda has banned fishing in Lake Victoria and this has led for a need to intervene and equip the fishermen with alternative livelihood. Indegenous vegetables like Nakati (Solanum aethiopicum),amaranthus and spider plant are one of the most important African indigenous vegetables crops in Sub‐Saharan Africa. Our aim is to promote production of these vegetables in Banga by training smallholder farmers in improved agronomic practices and on‐farm seed production.

Knowledge systems

A knowledge system is a conceptually constructed body of ideas, observations and methods for comprehending through understanding and intuition. It involves extending and/or querying a knowledge base.

The knowledge of this community is guided by empiricism and pragmatism and thus the community places much value on the lake and is dependent upon its utility as both a metaphysical and historical contingent. Most local people in this community, have existed in environment for generations, their empiricist mind has led to survival of this community for many years on the shores of the lake. The cultural system of these people has for so long been based on their interaction with the lake and its many elements. This community’s knowledge has been shaped by both rationalism and idealistic innate knowledge systems which tend to express itself in form of intuition which has been expressed in their ability to anticipate weather changes, state of the waters and fish behaviors thus leading to a precise seasonal bumper fishing harvests and ultimate survival on the lake shores. The community also has several closed and open systems, family systems, education systems, political systems, and farming systems.

 Agro-ecological approaches

This community situated on the shores of Lake Victoria, has vast natural resources in form of the lake, forests and fertile land. This marginal and smallholding community comprising of both farmers and fishermen has undergone harsh livelihood and food insecurity conditions, because of the government ban to fishing in the lake. They practice small-scale agriculture which is susceptible to a large number of ecological and socioeconomic factors and variables. They have no quick access to credit either from banks or other financial institutions that would provide them with reasonable rates of interest. Thus, they have resorted to other kinds of income generating some of which are harmful to the ecosystem.

There is a paradigm shift from being a fishing community to an agrarian community. Consequently, the community is increasingly turning to the natural resources and practicing conventional agricultural systems. In order for current and future food and fiber needs to be met, natural resources will have to be used in a more agro-ecological sustainable manner. Organic farming is practiced by use of farmyard manure to fertilize the crops which include bananas, maize, sweet potatoes and beans. To a large extent, the effect of government policy on the ecosystems is observed; the youth have turned to deforestation, charcoal burning and bricklaying which has had an effect on the biodiversity. There is therefore a need for interventions in this community that are regarded as most appropriate for maximizing biodiversity that would be beneficial to agro-ecosystems and offer sustainable management of both on- farm and off-farm natural resources.

Epistemology:

Epistemology is about the way we know things; it involves the sources of knowledge in a community. What constitutes valid knowledge and how do they obtain knowledge? Epistemology is a field of science that tends to describe the many approaches we can chose to understand our world. It is by definition the science of knowledge and consequently is often understood as a meta-science: the science of defining what the “scientific way” is. Mostly, it studies the fundamental choices or givens you take into account when you attempt to know something. Against this background the sources of knowledge in this community are seen to include the metaphysical where the locals practice both Christianity and traditional religion. They are pragmatic and hold historic values dependent upon their utility. Their actions and decisions arise from prescriptive assumptions obtained through past events, stories, folksongs, drama, traditional games, briefs, opinions and generational inheritance. They are empiricist and use their experience to survive from year to year on the shores of Lake Victoria. Their rationalism regards reason, mentorship and guidance from elders as a chief source of knowledge.

Ontology

Ontology is about what things are. What is the reality and how does the community in question understand existence. The reality comprises of beliefs, morals, perspective, facts, past events, experienced problems, measurements, reasoning, culture, social events, meetings and trainings. Ontology in this community is about describing things and their relationships in order to identify a real problem or pseudo- problem experienced by them. This community was affected by government policy to ban fishing on the lake which led to loss of a livelihood and income. Lack of employment and sustenance.

Ontology to some extremes can be regarded as a particular epistemological posture. After all, ontology implies that you first accept that things can "be", i.e. can be defined by their own beings. Even if it seems obvious, many languages don't have such definitive verb about the nature of things. Some community members/farmers could absolutely oppose to this idea in saying that things are fully made of unforeseen events, that context prevails, or that things exist in their personal experience as postulated in its radical empiricism.

They were hit by some unforeseen events that have robbed them of their known source of food, livelihood and sustenance. The community’s ontological perspective is in form of a question: "Are things really like this or is that just the way community sees them?" They have been forced to accept it as a fact and real problem.

Interventions and how they were approached

The intervention and approach used followed principles which contribute to resiliency and sustainable livelihoods. Farming systems managed with agroecological principles exhibit a number of socio-ecological features that when identified in an agroecosystem, suggest that it is resilient and endowed with a capacity for adaptation and transformation. Depending on the socio-economic, cultural and environmental realities of each community, these principles take different technological forms and are applied a as a set of practices.

Biodiversity enhances ecosystem function because components that appear redundant at one point in time become important when some environmental change occurs. The redundancies allow for continued ecosystem functioning in the midst of climatic or other changes. On the other hand, a diversity of species acts as a buffer against failure due to environmental fluctuations, by enhancing the compensation capacity of the agro-ecosystem, because if one species fails, others can play their role, thus leading to more predictable aggregate community responses and enhanced ecological resiliency.

We will guide the community to take up growing of indigenous vegetables as an alternative source of livelihood. The vegetables will include; Solanum aethiopicum, amaranthus and spider plant. These can be sold to the neighboring district of Kampala via Gaba landing site and in Mukono town. Below are a set of guiding questions used in our approach to assess if the proposed agro-ecological interventions are contributing to resiliency and sustainable livelihoods;

1. Are they reducing poverty?

2. Are they based on rights and social equity?

3. Do they reduce social exclusion, particularly for women, minorities and indigenous people?

4. Do they protect access and rights to land, water and other natural resources?

5. Do they favor the redistribution (rather than the concentration) of productive resources?

6. Do they substantially increase food production and contribute to household food security and     

    improved nutrition?

7. Do they enhance families’ water access and availability?

8. Do they regenerate and conserve soil, and other landscape elements such as vegetation cover?

9. Do they reduce soil loss/degradation and enhance soil regeneration and fertility ?

10. Do practices maintain or enhance organic matter and the biological life of the soil?

11. Do they prevent pest and disease outbreaks?

12. Do they conserve and encourage agrobiodiversity?

13. Do they reduce greenhouse gas emissions?

14. Do they increase income opportunities and employment?

15. Do they reduce variation in agricultural production under climatic stress conditions?

16. Do they enhance farm diversification and resilience?

17. Do they reduce investment costs and farmers dependence on external inputs?

18. Do they increase the degree and effectiveness of farmer organizations?

19. Do they increase human capital formation?

20. Do they contribute to local/regional food sovereignty?