Ugandans return home after 20 years in displaced camps

Over a million Ugandans, who fled their homes during the decades of violent conflict have begun returning gradually to their homeland.

The return was made possible through a United Nations-backed farming project, the Food and Agricultural Organization (FAO) press release announced. The project is a rice-based farming system designed to improve food security and reducing poverty in Uganda. To date, approximately 1.5 million internally displaced persons (IDPs) have been living in makeshift camps for more than 20 years. “That is when we needed to take action to help people return to their homelands and encourage them to start farming again,” Percy Misika, FAO Representative in the Ugandan capital, Kampala remarked in the release. New Rice for Africa (NERICA) rice is the focus of FAO’s cultivation strategy for Uganda. “The different NERICA varieties offer a number of advantages: they grow well on the uplands and are resistant to drought, their yield is 30 per cent higher than that of local varieties, and they produce a long grain rice with good flavour and high nutritional content which matures in three months or less when the rains are regular,” said Misika. The household-staking part in this project are comprised of men and women who have no income and who grew up in camps for the displaced. They do not have any prior knowledge or experience in agricultural production. “We are careful to choose the best profile of facilitator to lead this participatory approach,” said NERICA National Project Manager, Emmanuel Iyamuremye Iyibingira. “It takes passion, motivation and perfectionism to offer effective training for the farmers, especially the young ones who have never known anything except the precarious life of the camps.”