Uganda National Development Plan 3 goal of AgroIndustrialization is to increase commercialization and competitiveness of agricultural production and agro processing. Uganda’s NDCs commit to a 22% emission cuts on a business as usual basis by 2030 through leveraging on a series of policies and measures in the energy, forestry and wetland sectors and complimented by additional measures in climate smart agriculture and transport. In its NDC, Uganda puts strong emphasis on adaptation actions, to ensure all people and communities are resilient to climate impacts.

Uganda losses huge amount of food as a result of postharvest losses. Reducing these post-harvest losses among cassava farming communities is crucial . Studies show that commercialization of the cassava value chain, has potential to recoup up to $300million in import substitution with wheat. Cassava is the second most important staple crop in Uganda farmed by over 70% of the population – making it economically inclusive. Adding value to this through leveraging accessible technologies like solar dryers - is recorded as capable of increasing incomes by 50 – 80% at the farm gate level. 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.  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. 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. Solar dryers are proving to be 48times faster at drying raw cassava to the recommended Uganda National Bureau of Standards (UNBS) moisture content of 12% or less.

Youth skills have been retooled to fabricate solar dryers adaptation: 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 biofertilisers, solar dryers, cassava cutting and training to use solar drying centres in their villages. This is very crucial in that it allows many members of the community to have access to a climate action solution of solar drying which helps to reduce their postharvest losses and helps brings impact to scale. This work has so far managed to fabricate five (5) drying Centre in Kyaggwe county of the Buganda Kingdom for example Nakisunga, Ggera, Nakifuma, Nagojje, Lugazi all those are solar drying centres ready in use by farmers.

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. This work has promoted reduction of cassava losses by providing technical guidance to cassava farmers and value addition to actors...Read more from the attached document