KABALE, UGANDA – Provia Kanyomozi’s career as an herbalist and medical practitioner in the southwestern Ugandan district of Kabale was in danger.
Kanyomozi inherited her profession from her mother. As a child, she gathered wild plants and herbs from the region’s lush highlands that her mother used in her practice.
But as the population grew in Kabale, she saw more and more forest become farmland.
“The reason for this was because the land had come under cultivation for food crops,” she says.
As a result, traditional practitioners faced threats to their professions.
“Our profession as hereditary traditional medical practitioners was endangered,” she says, “because most of the medicinal plants that form the raw materials for our work could no longer be found.”
At times, Kanyomozi says she needed to travel as far as 40 miles to gather the herbs needed for her practice.
“Since all of the plants grew in the wild at the mercy of nature, we had no way of ensuring their preservation,” she says.
As the forest disappeared, herbalists feared they would lose their indigenous knowledge with it, she says.
But their situation changed three years ago, when a researcher interested in the identification, conservation and domestication of rare medicinal plants arrived in the area, Kanyomozi says.
Anke Weisheit is the natural resources management specialist at Excel Hort Consult Ltd., an agribusiness company headquartered in Uganda. The company works with local communities to enhance agriculture and to improve food security and conservation.
In 2010, Weisheit arrived in Kabale with her colleague, Pamela Mbabazi, an associate professor at Mbarara University of Science and Technology.
Mbabazi managed to mobilize a number of practitioners, Kanyomozi says. During meetings with them, Weisheit saw that they had to gather most of their herbs from far away, and there was never any certainty of where they could obtain them next.
“Weisheit recommended to us the idea of domestication of the plants, and we immediately saw the benefits of this approach,” Kanyomozi says.
To strengthen their strategy, the traditional healers united. They formally launched Bunyonyi Batambi Kweterana Group in April 2010. The name of the group means Bunyonyi Healers Association in the Rukiga language and pays homage to the nearby Lake Bunyonyi.
Kanyomozi, now the chairwoman of Bunyonyi Batambi Kweterana Group, says that so far, the project been a success.
“Our gardens of the medicinal plants near our homes are getting bigger and better,” Kanyomozi says. “In a few years, we will be assured of the availability of most of the plants we use.”
As the herbs grow, so has interest in traditional healing methods.
“Although many of us have inherited the profession, we now train others who may be interested,” Kanyomozi says.
Soon after beginning the project with Weisheit, the community became acquainted with other conservation programs too.
Agricultural development, population growth and urbanization are fueling deforestation in Uganda. To tackle deforestation and its effects, one local organization is training communities in Kabale on innovative solutions ranging from anti-erosion trenches to energy-saving stoves. The projects depend on collaboration with community members and government representatives to complement traditional knowledge and to promote sustainability.
Excel Hort Consult Ltd., established in Uganda in 1999, operates in five East African countries, CEO Alex Ariho says. It has programs in biodiversity conservation, nutrition and food security and agribusiness value chain development.
The company’s work is in response to the rapid deforestation of Uganda.
Areas around Kampala, Uganda’s capital, have lost more than 78 percent of their forests since 1990, says Aryamanya Mugisha, the former executive director of the National Environment Management Authority, during a telephone interview. Mugisha says that if deforestation continues at this rate, there will be no forest left in Uganda in 40 years.
“The acceleration of deforestation is a result of expanding farmland, population growth and increasing urbanization,” Mugisha says.
He also cites dependence on firewood.
“In addition, only 10 percent of the population has access to electricity, and 89 percent of rural population use firewood,” he says. “This trend is quite alarming, as we have to do all we can to find ways to reverse it.”
Because of the depletion of tree cover, rainwater runs down the mountainous landscape of Kabale with more force, Ariho says. Traditional terraces cannot prevent rain from washing away soil and crops, which has had disastrous consequences.
With guidance from Excel Hort Consult Ltd., new groups have formed in Kabale to tackle deforestation and its effects.
Pakalasio Habomugisha, 43, is the chairman of Kagalama Turinde Eby’obuhangwa, a community group in Kagalama whose name means “Kagalama, let us preserve the environment” in the Rukiga language.
He says that traditional terraces built into the hills are no longer enough to prevent soil erosion and carry out successful agriculture. But with training, the community has begun to tackle this problem.
“One of the first things Excel Hort Consult does is to train the group members to dig trenches, locally known as ‘fanya chini,’” Ariho says.
The Swahili term translates to “digging deeper.”
“We work on the trenches as a community initiative,” Habomugisha says.
Working as a group has helped to accomplish the goal of preventing further erosion.
“The fanya chini trenches have halted the destruction made by rainwater sweeping down the hills,” Habomugisha says. “The groups have helped us to work together, to accomplish what we need in the community.”
To further prevent soil erosion, Kagalama Turinde Eby’obuhangwa is also working with Excel Hort Consult Ltd. on planting trees to restore forests.
“Excel Hort has also given us seeds for tree nurseries,” Habomugisha says. “The nursery seeds are given to one selected member of the group, who takes the responsibility to nurture the nursery beds.”
When the seeds are ready, the group meets to distribute them to members.
“Each member can then go and start his or her tree garden,” Habomugisha says.
Habomugisha is adamant about the importance of forests in Uganda. Without them, the ecosystem fails, bringing unwanted consequences such as climate change, he says.
He blames deforestation in Kabale partially on the reliance on firewood for cooking.
Ariho says that Excel Hort Consult Ltd. has introduced a new stove model to the community to tackle this problem. It is designed to prevent deforestation by requiring less firewood.
“Just one stick of wood can cook all the meals for the day,” Kanyomozi says.
Not only does using less firewood conserve trees, but it also alleviates the burden on women.
“The stoves have helped families, and especially the women who had the responsibility of fetching firewood,” Ariho says. “They were reducing tree cover, leading to more and more degradation because they had no alternative.”
He says the company is training groups to use murram soil and chopped grass to build their own stoves.
“All the members are now trained to make the stoves, and some are getting good business out there, making these energy-saving stoves,” Ariho says. “There is a good market for them from the communities.”
Program expansion is already in the works.
“We want the membership of the groups to increase and for each household to have the energy-saving stove,” says Andrew Ainomugisha, program manager for Excel Hort Consult Ltd.
The success of the stoves, like many of the local projects, depends on collaboration with community groups in Kabale and government-sponsored initiatives.
Ariho says that the gardens tended by Kanyomozi’s group of herbalists are an example of how the company’s work combines new strategies with traditional knowledge.
“Excel Hort Consult supports the idea of the gardens of medicinal shrubs and trees as a way of preserving the generational transfer of indigenous knowledge,” Ariho says, “as well as value addition to the practice.”
Edison Hilman, district agricultural officer for the Kabale district, says that the government also participates in this collaboration.
“Excel Hort Consult’s work complements that of government at district level,” he says. “They want to improve the community welfare through the various programs they promote in the subcounties.”
Hilman sits on the steering committee of Excel Hort Consult Ltd.
“We in the government work in partnership with Excel Hort Consult Ltd. because we share the same interests for development of agriculture and value-chain addition,” he says.
Hilman says that he has been able to provide ideas and feedback on the projects administered by Excel Hort Consult Ltd. He also introduces concepts for new solutions, such as an innovative pigpen design that uses indigenous microorganisms.
Project leaders at Excel Hort Consult Ltd. stress the importance of a collaborative and innovative approach when tackling Uganda’s environmental and agricultural challenges.
“The future of Africa’s economic transformation is through private sector development, and farming as business must be given priority,” Ariho says. “African problems will be solved through building on existing indigenous knowledge.”
To best use local knowledge, Ariho says that Excel Hort Consult Ltd. is ensuring that communities are actively involved in their efforts.
“We are starting youth agribusiness clubs in schools,” he says. “And our approach of forming groups that are self-initiated and managed will ensure sustainability of best practices.”
For Ainomugisha, who holds a doctorate in development studies, one of the most important aspects of Excel Hort Consult Ltd.’s approach is that it translates development studies into practice.
“We have had enough theory,” he says, “and this is the time for turning theory into practice and changing people’s lives.”
