Access to water is the most basic of necessities for human beings and their domestic animals, and it is the first priority for any farmer’s planning in the Savannah dry range land in the South-Western Agro Ecological Zone.

With the increasing periods of drought and longer dry spells in our changing climate come implications for environmental conservation, water storage and utilization, household food security and livestock fodder production that we must heed.

Dream Farm Kyakabunga Group members, community members and project beneficiaries celebrated their partnership with Quaker Service Australia (QSA) with the excavation of a valley dam that now provides our community with an essential reserve of water close by that can be stored for long periods.

The goal of Quaker Service Australia’s International work is to assist the communities in the countries where they work to achieve a greater quality of life through improved food security and access to water, poverty alleviation and local capacity building.

Over 2017, Dream Farm and QSA are working together to enhance environmental conservation through a project focusing on water harvesting, crop and livestock production in Kiruhura District in south-western Uganda. This project aims to increase the number of farmers practicing conservation farming techniques, and partners agreed to start implementation by excavating to create the Community Dam which is now filled with clean rain water and providing enhanced water supply to 300 households in the area.

Benefits of having a Community Water Dam

Safe water supply for households and livestock
Community members will not need to travel so far to fetch water
Agro-forestry: this water will be used to irrigate nursery beds for newly planted tree.
Water harvesting will encourage pasture production and help to maintain livestock from starvation or death during droughts.
Expected flow-on effects
mproved nutrition and feed for livestock by irrigating pasture, legume and fodder tree gardens, resulting in healthier and more fertile animals.
Increased crop yields, milk and meat production for community beneficiaries hence reduction in poverty levels and greater food security
Environment conservation will be improved due to sufficient water for tree planting, pasture multiplication and intercropping.

Other Dream Farm initiatives

Through zero grazing and energy-saving technologies, animal wastes such as cow dung will be made available for biogas production. This will reduce communities’ dependence on wood fuel, thus reducing their encroachment Lake Mburo National Park and protected wild life areas.
The by-products of biogas production such as bio slurry will be used as soil amendments for soil fertility improvement thus improving crop yields, again reducing encroachment into the national park and forest reserves.