A farmer in Palabek Ogili, Northern Uganda, harvesting greens for an evening meal from her garden.

July 2018. Palabek Ogili, a host community for Palabek Refugee Settlement, Northern Uganda. Incorporating the Resilience Design methodologies of the USAID TOPS/SCALE program.

A host community for refugees from South Sudan, Palabek Ogili has seen pressure on the natural resource base of its community dramatically increase since the opening of Palabek refugee settlement a few years ago. Recognizing that competition for scarce resources between refugees and host community members can lead to even greater conflict and environmental degradation, African Women Rising’s Resilience Design field crop program helps farmers conserve precious water and soil resources as they continue to grow food to feed their families.

Participants in African Women Rising’s agricultural programs learn skills to conserve and manage rainfall, use locally available soil amendments to build soil fertility, and design cropping systems that can provide food and income well into the lean hunger and dry seasons ahead.

Deep soil preparation, proactively ‘banking’ rainwater in the soil through contour swales and berms, mulching the landscape, drought tolerant crop varieties, perennial crops that bear food in the dry season- these are all techniques that help protect key water and soil ecosystem services in the face of a shifting environment.

For more information: https://www.africanwomenrising.org/about-us/agriculture/