Call for Concept Notes: Inclusive Development of Sustainable Farming Systems – Uganda

Deadline: 28-Jan-24

The Embassy of the Kingdom of the Netherlands in Kampala (EKN) intends to develop and finance a program for the Food Security portfolio of EKN, aiming at inclusive development of farming systems in several districts in Busoga and Lango regions. EKN therefore invites organizations interested to implement such a program, to submit a concept note.

Policy Objectives

The Embassy of the Kingdom of the Netherlands (EKN) is supporting the development of the agricultural sector through its Food Security & Nutrition (FSN) department. The FS policy of the Netherlands government has as objectives to:

• Promote inclusive and sustainable growth. This is measured by the enhancing productivity and income of small holder farmers (SDG 2.3);
• Promote ecological sustainable production with the conversion of farmland to sustainable use as the indicator (SDG 2.4 and 2.5);
• Eliminate hunger and malnutrition by lifting people out of undernourishment (SDG 2.1 and 2.2).

The program objectives fit well with Uganda’s National Development Plan III (NDP III) which has as goal: “To increase HH income and improve quality of life of Ugandans”. NDP III recognizes the dominance of smallholder farmers in Uganda’s agriculture and their potential to increase the country’s overall agricultural productivity given the right conditions. The agricultural strategy under NDP III is the Agro-Industrialization Programme (AIP).

These overall objectives have been translated by the Embassy in Kampala in a multi-annual strategy (MACS) for sustainable development and food security. The overarching objective is the development of smallholder agriculture, sustainable land use and nutrition. Central in the strategy is the sustainable increase in income and production of smallholder farmers (SHF) and their increased resilience to climate risks and market shocks, for which sustainable land use is key. In addition, attention will be given to improve nutrition among Bottom of Pyramid (BoP) consumers including SHF.

The envisaged program will focus on sustainable increase in income and production of smallholder farmers (SHF) and their increased resilience to climate risks. Sustainable land use is a key feature to achieve this. Nutrition is not a major component of the program and will be limited to the implementation of basic nutrition activities at household level. Collaboration with Cascade must be sought.

The program will focus specifically on the development of SHF and their farming systems. Resilience of livelihoods and income to climate change and market failures will be central in the approach. The program strategies and activities will be based on an in-depth knowledge on the opportunities, challenges, and priorities of SHF households. A participatory household-level planning will be at the basis of the program. Core areas of attention of the program are:

• Participatory household and village planning.
• Strengthening farming systems and market linkages.
• Concrete climate adaptation measures.
• Development of several specific value chains per region.
• Sustainable land use practices.

The program will target broad farming systems development. Value chains will be selected based on the relevance for the farmers, opportunities for adding value and/or market development and their fit within the farming systems. To enhance resilience to market shocks, to mitigate risk and to broaden the opportunities, multiple value chains will be supported by the program.

Funding Information

• Maximum budget for the program is total 30 million euro for 5 years.

Expected Outcome and Outputs

• Goal: Resilient and inclusive economic development of rural lowland communities.
• Outcomes:
  • Smallholder farmers realize a living income by increased production and income (target; min. 200,000 HH).
  • SHF livelihoods become more resilient to market deficiencies and climate stress.
  • Farmland is agro-ecological more resilient to shocks (target min 200,000 acres).
• Result areas, the result areas are divided in two categories, principal and contributing:
  • Principal:
    • Empowered households and inclusive decision-making.
    • Increased household income and farm profitability.
    • Enhanced performance and resilience of SHF farming systems (farm income/profit, soil fertility and conservation, ecology, irrigation, diversification etc.).
    • Improved sustainability of land use.
    • Improved marketing conditions for smallholders by better access to and functioning of markets and processing facilities
  • Contributing:
    • Increased household productivity
    • Improved coping mechanisms within the farming systems for drought and heat stress. 8. Inclusive and sustainable development of
    • main value chains and 2 promising niche crops relevant for each intervention areas.
    • Increased efficiency of market actors in the relevant value chains.
    • Improved access of smallholders to inputs, services.
    • Reduced post-harvest losses, including storage.

Way of Working

• Smallholder farmers are the focus of the program. Lessons from implemented projects learn that innovations and improved technologies are often not adopted by farmers. Often because technologies and innovations do not match the challenges and opportunities that farmers live. This is often one of the major reasons for disappointing results of projects.
• Early lessons from the recently started projects indicate that household and village level planning as a basis for engagement, offers potential for broad and inclusive farming systems development, if it is a crucial step for a project to strategize and develop activities that are in line with the ambitions, opportunities, and challenges of SHF and their households. This will catalyze dialogue at household level among all members of the household and be instrumental to address broader inclusion aspects such as gender, youth, disability, and other inequalities.
• Therefore, the program will base its strategy and activities on a good understanding of the farming systems, the risks SHF face, and the ambitions, opportunities, and challenges of SHF and their households.
• The program is expected to develop locally adapted and easily replicable innovations to address the main impediments to agricultural development in the two regions. To enhance resilience, income of smallholders and inclusivity, the program will work on improved land-use, improved functioning of farming systems, several value chains, climate adaptation measures such as complimentary irrigation where applicable.
• The understanding of the farmer perspective will be coupled with a proper understanding of the power relations in the regions that impact the agricultural development and functioning of markets and value chains. This is essential for the design of the proper strategies and activities.
• For certain crops an intensive value chain support process may be required while for others some specific intervention in, for example, market access or seed supply, may be the game-changer.
• Under resilience they understand the capacity of SHF to cope with climate, market failure and other challenges. In principle, proper diversification enhances resilience as it reduces the impact of, for example, drought, crop-diseases, and collapse of markets.
• The principal target groups of the program are SHF and their organizations. The program will also work with actors who play important role in the functioning of the market and the value chain such as SHF, entrepreneurial farmers, cooperatives, businesses, processors, and market players.
• The program will follow an inclusive approach. This implies that strategies and interventions will be based on a proper understanding of the interests and relations between different stakeholders, including smallholders, female-headed households, youth, entrepreneurial farmers, farmer organizations, SMEs, and local government. All these stakeholders may have a role to play in the development of the farming systems and value chains by the program.
• A proper analysis of the roles, opportunities and challenges of the different stakeholders will be a required to design relevant strategies and interventions. Interventions with other stakeholders than SHF households will be based on their relevance to develop SHF livelihoods.
• Other relevant programs. As already mentioned, EKN and Netherlands Ministry of Foreign Affairs finance several other food security activities some of which are operating in the areas of the envisaged program. Collaboration with relevant programs and projects will be pursued by the program. Lessons will be learned and incorporated from earlier (including Netherlands funded) activities.
• Projects of specific interest for Lango and Busoga are:
  • Include (under development): Livestock.
  • A-GRIP (inception): result-based financing of local governments for land tenure and agricultural services.
  • Hortimap: horticultural development
• Sustainability. Right from the start provisions will be built in the program to promote sustainability after the termination of the intervention; financially, institutionally as well in terms of capacity and ownership.
• Use existing studies and value chain analysis for different crops/livestock by other actors, especially focused on Uganda.

For more information, visit Embassy of the Kingdom of the Netherlands in Uganda (EKN).