Uganda's NDCs commit to a 22% emission cuts on a business as usual basis by 2030 due to a series  of policies and measures in the energy, forestry and wetland sectors and complimented by  additional measures in climate smart agriculture and transport. As of 2016, Uganda is ranked as  the 14th most vulnerable country and the 48th least ready country to address climate change by  the ND-GAIN Country Index. According to a study by CDKN (2015), the cost of inaction on climate  change will range between 3.2 billion and 5.9 billion per annum by 2025 with the biggest economic impact in the sectors water, energy, agriculture and infrastructure. In its NDC, Uganda puts strong  emphasis on adaptation actions, to ensure all people and communities are resilient to climate  impacts.

According to FAO’s Energy in and from agriculture in the African Nationally Determined Contributions (NDC). Uganda encourages efficient biomass energy production; Uganda is interested in expanding the use of off-grid solar systems to support food value addition and irrigation. It also wants to foster value-added food processing, post-harvest handling, storage and access to markets for agricultural products, including through micro-finance. 

Against this backdrop, UNEP EBAFOSA Uganda initiated the drive to showcase how climate resilience can be implemented in a continuum leveraging on mitigation actions to power adaptation resilience where both socio-economic and biophysical resilience is achieved  simultaneously. Uganda losses huge amount of food as a result of post-harvest losses. Reducing these post-harvest losses among cassava farming communities is crucial. 

Beyond the farm-gate, solar-dryer powered value addition is an opportunity to increase production of quality value added products like cassava flour up to 200 times. Value addition is recorded capable of creating livelihoods for over 6 million of Uganda’s youth under 25years, who can tap income opportunities through creating market, supply and production opportunities along the value chain. It is an opportunity to enhance profitability across various  confectionary enterprises. For example, biscuit manufacturers in Uganda can save over $130,000  each year by substituting 35% of wheat flour with cassava flour. Rural bakeries, that consume  about 2/3 of wheat in Uganda, can reduce raw material costs by 25%, by substituting wheat flour  with high quality cassava flour. All these socioeconomic benefits are realized along climate resilient  benefit. Where cassava being a resilient crop, has the lowest failure risk under harsh climate – just  8% - compared to the nearest challenges which is at 20%.

This work demonstrated practically how mitigation actions can be used to optimized adaptation to drive socio-economic resilience using Ecosystems Based Adaptation (EBA) approaches known  to be climate resilient as a preferred method to produce cassava and ensure yields can be enhanced under the changing climate. In addition, clean energy was put at forefront to mobilize  cassava farmers use solar drying technology to produce quality cassava chips and flour.

Five solar drying centers have been established in cassava farmers groups in the Buganda Kingdom of Nakisunga,Ggera,Nakifuma,Nagojje and Kawolo in Kyaggwe county benefiting 300 cassava farmers to  engage cassava value chain. Those farmers are distributed in five VSLAs with 60 farmers per VSLA, 12  members are clustered per village and among receiving EBA training, briquettes training, currently they are  planting one acre of cassava disease resistant variety of NAROCAS 1 per village using EBA approaches  supplied by EBAFOSA Uganda.The decentralisation of solar dryers to power preservation and primary  processing of cassava into varied products is the key ground action that we have undertaken. Accordingly, youth have been structurally guided and mentored under the EBAFOSA Uganda incubation structure to  develop and improve solar dryer designs that are applicable to the current user base –farmers. Through a  series of iterations, they have developed solar dryers proving to be 48times faster at drying raw cassava to  the recommended Uganda National Bureau of Standards (UNBS) moisture content of 12% or less.

Interventions  

• Youth skills have been retooled to fabricate solar dryers: To drive climate action in a continuum,  skills are a prime premium. Against this backdrop youth were engaged through the process of  EBAFOSA Innovative Volunteerism and the willing youth skills were retooled to fabricate solar  dryers as local climate action solutions to bring impact to scale. Against this backdrop, through this  work 58 youth skills have been retooled and adapted to fabricate solar dryers in Uganda to help  in reduction of post-harvest losses in villages. Youth have been trained on how to innovate and fabricate portable and durable metallic solar dryers.
• Establishment of Solar Drying Centers; this work set up Village Savings and Loans  Association (VSLAs) anchored within the traditional structures of the Buganda Kingdom Cooperative known as the PEWOSA to help farmers access credit to get climate action  solution inputs like bio-fertilisers, solar dryers, cassava cutting and training to use solar  drying centres in their villages.
• Training of cassava farmers to use solar dryers; leveraging on the cooperative communal  structures and applying the VSLA models, this work has conducted mapping and selection  of farmers with cassava and trained to add value on the cassava to produce quality cassava  chip without foreign matter.
• Increase earning along the value chain, how to add value and create enterprises without  compromising the environment and how to do so without re-inventing the wheel, but rather  leveraging what they already have which is leveraging on its people skills, talents, passion and their enterprising resourcefulness in engaging value chain.
• Decentralization of solar dryers; fabrication of five (5) Giant community solar dryers along Village  savings and Loans Association (VSLA) in Kyaggwe county.
• Linking different value chains to solar dryers; this work has enhanced innovation of youth who  have started developing the mushroom value chain by using solar dryers to increase its value by drying in a way that enhances quality and hygiene.

Impacts  

• Adoption of solar drying technology among cassava farmers; All farmers surveyed dry the cassava  in direct sunshine after peeling and slicing into chips. This work mapped and identified cassava  farmers in Kyaggwe county to help them dry their cassava in a solar dryer.
• Promotion of Climate Action Driven Agribusiness Enterprises; youth trained to fabricate solar  dryers utilized the free training offered to them by EBAFOSA Uganda to cascade this climate action  solutions of solar dryers technology to villages and women agribusiness groups.
• Ready market for the cassava flour; this work has trained farmers to clean cassava, chip it into  smaller sizes for drying in a solar dryer in a short period of time.
• Gender mainstreaming: women were trained on how to operate solar dryers, use the solar dryers  to dry their cassava chips. This  work has encouraged cassava famers engage in value addition for example Safe space for Girls  Initiative in Buloba village, Busiro county women were trained to add value on cassava.
• Reduced losses of cassava during storage of dried cassava chips.

Read the full report from the attached document to see more details and next course of action.

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