AfrII mourns key beneficiary of her cassava development projects; CAVA and CSS
Wednesday 11/1/2023 –It’s somber as AfrII, partners and donors grieve with the family of prominent passionate cassava entrepreneur, Mr. Sam Opiyo who died yesterday in hospital in Apac district in Northern Uganda. Mr. Opiyo, was one of many farmers discovered in 2010 by AfrII during implementation of phase one of the Cassava: Adding Value for Africa (C:AVA) project. He was, from then up to the time of his death, a key champion of industrialization the crop. The CAVA Uganda project imparted skills and knowledge to Opiyo and other target beneficiaries in cassava farming and commercialization for improved livelihoods. CAVA also facilitated the successful installation of Opiyo’s multi-million-dollar investment of a High Quality Cassava Flour (HQCF) processing factory- Adyaka Wholesalers Limited in Apac, a state of the art technology that processes wet cassava mash into HQCF within 3 seconds making it ready for human and commercial use.
Opiyo was also a celebrated certified Cassava Seed Entrepreneur (CSE) with over 500 acres of clean cassava gardens in Apac. He was supported by AfrII and Government’s joint Cassava Seed Systems (CSS) project to grow his cassava business. His knowledge in cassava farming and management won him several contracts with the governments Operation Wealth Creation initiative to supply clean cassava planting materials to farmers in Northern Uganda.
Mr. Opiyo at his cassava factory shows off his certificate of recognition as a certified Cassava Seed Entrepreneur (CSE).
Brief highlight on the CAVA Project
The CAVA Project concluded its second phase in 2019 following successful implementation in 5 African countries of Uganda, Nigeria, Ghana, Malawi and Tanzania. Specifically, CAVA Uganda impacted over 1 million beneficiaries directly and indirectly i.e. smallholder cassava farmers, Community Processing Groups (CPGs), and Small and Medium Scale Enterprises along the cassava value chain in Central, Eastern and Northern Uganda. For example, through the project linked cassava processors and SME’s to emerging HQCF markets in the pharmaceuticals, breweries, composite flour millers, biscuit, yogurt, sausage, paperboard and bakery industries.
The CAVA project was funded by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation through the Natural Resources Research Institute-University of Greenwich-UK.
AfrII cassava project improves youth livelihoods in Northern Uganda
Participants during the workshop on crop insurance in Lira district.
Youth on a cassava project implemented by Africa Innovations Institute and WindWood Millers Limited (WML) during a workshop on crop insurance in Lira District. The training was organised for Community Based Organisations (CBOs), Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs), Community Based Facilitators (CBFs), and service providers to review project progress and prepare farmers for crop insurance for the next crop season. The project is funded by the Private Sector Foundation Uganda (PSFU) with support from the Mastercard Foundation.
#Youthinagribusiness #cassava #cropinsurance
AfrII strategizes course for an impactful 2021
8 January 2021, Kampala— AfrII today held the first staff general meeting to set the ball rolling for the new year. The meeting conformed to government guidelines and SOPs on protection against Covid 19 as all members were masked up and socially distanced.
Guided by the CEO, Prof. William Otim-Nape, staff strategized on a number of areas including winning new work partnerships for AfrII to stay relevant and efficiently carry out its mandate-to change lives for the better. The CEO assured staff to be confident that 2021 will be a great year as the world steadily recovers from the dreaded Covid-19 and its effects, thanks to a ray of hope in the discovery of a vaccine. Covid -19 worldwide has sharply strained livelihoods and businesses and forced countries world over to move away from the business as usual and come up with creative coping mechanisms amidst covid-19.
“We are into a new year that presents hope for the entire world since a vaccine has been discovered. I urge us all however, to continue staying safe and healthy until the vaccine gets to us in Uganda. Therefore, continue wearing your face masks at all times when in contact with other people while on duty. Also, regularly wash your hands with soap and water or sanitize with an alcohol based hand rub. We are still not yet safe because covid 19 is still very much present, in 2021,” said Professor William Otim-Nape, AfrII CEO as he advised staff to keep safe and stay healthy.
AfrII inspires 4000+ youth into profitable agribusiness ventures along the cassava value chain
AfrII and partners on the YLA project increased the economic opportunity and income of 4,787 youths engaged in the fresh cassava roots (FCR) value chain in the districts of Lira and Apac in Northern Uganda. Through the project, a total of UGX 849,550,994 was realized by 4,787 youths, an over achievement from the initial targeted 4,710 youths. Through exposure to training activities around financial literacy, the youth embraced a culture of saving and borrowing and were able to mobilize savings worth UGX 64,708,000 and to access financial services valued at UGX 183,084,000 during the project implementation period.
How the project attracted and benefited the youth.
The project focused on interventions to facilitate Fresh Cassava Root (FCR) supply to facilitate processing of FCR into High Quality Cassava Flour (HQCF) at WindWood Millers Ltd (WML) and Adyaka Wholesalers Limited (AWL) cassava factories that each need about 7,200 metric tons of FCRs annually, an equivalent of 720 acres of cassava if average yields of 10 metric tons per acre are achieved. Both companies were constrained by challenges due to the erupt spread of Cassava Brown Streak Disease (CBSD), prolonged drought in the region and increased demand for cassava products for various uses, which led to a drastic decline in the quantity and quality of FCR available for processing. Consequently, the factories were then operating at less than 10% of their annual installed capacity. Each Company then embarked on own FCRs production and established 40-60 acres of own nucleus farms to produce FCRs for processing. This was still far below their annual FCRs requirement of about 7,200 MTs or 720 acres. To mitigate this, both factories requested AfrII to help them organize the FCR supply chain in order to increase supply of FCR to their factories.
AND, with support from USAID Feed the Future Uganda Youth Leadership for Agriculture Activity (YLA), AfrII entered into a partnership with Chemonics International, to support both companies to pilot private sector-led delivery of technology and skills for increasing cassava yields and fresh root supply on contract. This encouraged innovative thinking and thus the project concept that targeted youth involvement so as to benefit the companies as well as increase youth economic opportunity in the cassava value chain in the long run.
In the photo: A smiling Akullu Semmy, 20 years old, one of the youths in Kole that immensely benefited from the YLA project.
AfrII and partners strategize on sustainability approaches towards climate action
Via Zoom: Project partners on the Capacity Building Initiative for Transparency (CBIT) project this morning held the final CBIT Quarterly Project Steering Committee (PSC) and Inter-Sector Meeting to discuss project outputs, achievements and challenges and also propose strategies and recommendations for sustainability of the project outcomes.
Presenting at the meeting, Dr. Felly Tusiime, the CBIT Uganda Project Manager, also Head of Climate Change and Environment Sustainability programme at AfrII said “We need flexibility across the sectors to share data for effective reporting. The expertise within the sectors should actively engage in national sectoral international reporting including UNFCCC e.g TNC and BUR as part of the task force.” Dr. Felly also strongly pointed out the need to operationalise the signed cooperation frameworks between MWE-CCD and the target ministries for sustainability of the project outcomes.
CBIT Uganda is funded by the Global Environment Facility through Conservation International and is implemented by AfrII and the Ministry of Water and Environments’ Climate Change Department (CCD). The project’s 3 key outcomes were: Support establishment and strengthening the institutional arrangements for robust GHG emission inventory and MRV system, build capacity of key stakeholders to collect, process and feed data into the GHG emissions inventory system and test and pilot the Green House Gas (GHG) Emission Inventory and Monitoring Reporting Verification (MRV) system.
AfrII’s CAVA Project benefits over one million cassava value chain actors
AfrII’s CAVA project impacted over one million persons –youths, women and men, who directly and indirectly benefitted from the project. The beneficiaries are; Small Holder Farmers (SHFs), Community Processing Groups (CPGs) and Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) who processed their own or procured Fresh Cassava Roots (FCRs) from SHFs; bulking agents who purchased either cassava grits or chips from processors and milled them into flour to sell to end users; Workers and employees of smallholder and commercial cassava farmers, processing end use industries, and flour millers and traders.
The CAVA project worked across the cassava value chains, specifically focusing on increasing smallholders’ productivity; expanding and developing processing capacity; and expanding products options, market opportunities and geographies. CAVA was funded by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation through the Natural Resources Institute-University of Greenwich, UK.
Read more here https://www.afrii.org/programmes/cassava-adding-value-for-africa-project-cava/
Using drama to emphasize hygiene and dietary diversity among communities in Karamoja
The drama group in action.
Karamoja region registers about 88% illiteracy among its population, with only 12% able to read and write in the districts of Moroto, Kotido, Nakapiripirit, Abim and Kaabong. Based on this information, AfrII and Farm Africa’s Livestock for Livelihoods (L4L) project is using community drama to effectively deliver information on promotion of diet diversity, WASH practices, and discouraging negative cultural norms among the project beneficiaries in Moroto, Napak, Kotido and Nakapiripirit. A drama titled “Diet rights” was successfully shot following the drama script developed in close consultations and guidance from the AfrII L4L nutrition team.
The script was adapted to the local dialect, Ngakarimojong, so as to enable the communities clearly understand the key messages required to effect behavioral change among the women of reproductive age with children less than 5 years in L4L households. The drama emphasizes Water, Sanitation and Hygiene (WASH) as important in prevention of diseases known to affect nutrient utilization among vulnerable groups.
Coincidentally, the drama shooting occurred during the Covid-19 pandemic that has affected lifestyles world over. Therefore, borrowing from and observing the popular message ‘regularly wash your hands’ to control its spread, most of the current L4L project activities are tagged to respond to covid 19, to widely popularize such key messages within the communities reached to ensure their health and safety.
The highly educative drama will be broadcast as a docuseries on AfrII’s YouTube Channel and the website www.afrii.org for wider audiences. The drama / film will also be broadcast on local televisions for further popularity.
The Film director (red blouse) interacts with one of the film actors.
The film crew in action
Credits: Ngikukus Ug. Ltd, a local film crew that acted the drama, Native Voices International that shot the drama and the L4L project team.
CBIT Uganda graduates 60+ national experts on GHG inventory and MRV
The Global Environment Facility (GEF) funded CBIT Uganda project jointly implemented by the Ministry of Water and Environment through the Climate Change Department (CCD) and AfrII, in collaboration with Conservation International (CI) will tomorrow 16.6.2020, launch the 6 sector GHG inventory, and graduate over 60 national experts on GHG inventory and MRV from Energy, Agriculture, Transport, Industry, Forestry, and Waste sectors. The ceremony will take place online via zoom video conferencing, in observance to government restrictions i.e. on public gatherings to curb likely spread of Covid-19.
The Capacity Building Initiative for Transparency (CBIT) Uganda project has supported the CCD-MWE to strengthen capacity of key stakeholders for Greenhouse Gas (GHG) data collection and processing in the target key emission sectors, so as to meet the transparency requirements of the Paris Agreement.
AfrII CEO delivers a powerful address at the Africa-UK AgriFood Innovation Mission 2020
AfrII CEO, Prof. George William Otim-Nape is among 16 selected delegates honored to speak and share his expert knowledge at the ongoing GCRF AgriFood Africa Programme virtual missions. The missions will highlight some of the challenges and trends within African AgriFood systems and will provide powerful networking connections in innovation and collaboration opportunities. https://ktn-uk.co.uk/programmes/gcrf-agrifood-africa-programme
In his presentation titled “A Broad Overview of the AgriFood Industry in Eastern Africa”, Prof Otim-Nape notes that the numerous challenges faced by the sector present great opportunities to the agrifood industry. He reasons that, exploitation of these opportunities will require increased investments, innovations in key growth sub-sectors, networking and collaborations through public-private partnerships and implementation of regional inclusive agro-food value chains. Prof also argues that the development of agri-food industry will also contribute to the Covid 19 response.
The missions aim to build a community of stakeholders from numerous African countries and the UK, to realize sustainable management of the food production systems in Africa in a way that alleviates poverty, enhances economic prosperity and delivers improved wellbeing.
CBIT Uganda Validation workshop
AfrII, partners and stakeholders will on Thursday 21st May 2020 participate in the CBIT Uganda Validation workshop: Final Sector GHG inventory and method statements presentations via zoom platform from 2:00 -5:00 pm.
Since Uganda declared a nationwide lock down in March 2020, as a move to prevent spread of the corona virus, the CBIT Uganda project team has since been engaged in numerous successful zoom trainings and meetings to ensure work carries on amidst the challenging COVID 19 situation.
The GEF-CI funded CBIT Uganda project is implemented by AfrII and the Ministry of Water and Environment-Climate Change Department’s 5 key emitting sectors; Waste, Energy, Transport, Agriculture and Forestry, to support Uganda to track progress towards implementing and achieving her NDCs and reduce GHG emissions.
