AGRICULTURAL & INCOMING GENERATING PROJECTS
Agriculture and income generating projects are very important factors in getting the communities to take responsibility for their financial security.
Part of Healthy Vine’s programme for Economic and Social Development is committing to the up-scale and co-ordination of agricultural projects so that they are managed properly and run on a Co-operative” basis rather than by individuals/family. This programme is run together with Vedco a Ugandan Agricultural NGO specialising in training and education. The objectives are
- To educate, train and uplift farmers from subsistence level to managing on a commercial basis.
- To promote community cooperation by working together to form cooperatives.
- To provide jobs in the local communities and through efficient marketing, also help finance further growth in the agricultural area.
The Healthy Vine Trust has supported the following co-operative agricultural projects :
The commencement of two Pig breeding programmes for widows and the elderly
The pigs will be bred in healthy and humane conditions and isolated from other pigs.
see also the latest news for more information and pictures.
Wantula pigs
A co-operative coffee growing project
This is a project involving members from the whole parish. The objective is to enable coffee farmers to grow high quality colonial coffee. The first stage is to establish a nursery which will grow seedlings from cuttings. From the nursery the seedlings will be transferred to a mother garden.
Membership of this project enables famers to buy seedlings at cost price and obtain first class expertise to enable the growing of top class colonial coffee which will be sold collectively. The aim is that the parish can uplift the quality and quantity of its coffee production and hopefully produce enough for the export market.
A co-operative fruit growing project (passion fruit, hass avocados and mangoes).
Another parish wide project is for the growing of good quality fruits. The first crops to be grown are hass avocado, passion fruit and mango. At this stage the quality crops will be grown on experimental plots of between 0.25 and 0.5 acre located throughout the parish. The members will benefit from obtaining first class advice on soil preparation, seedling selection, growing and cropping methods as well as disease prevention and collective sales.