This is the situation in Uganda, where efforts to boost agricultural growth through the transfer of cutting-edge technology and a greater focus on the market are an essential component of a larger "poverty eradication" strategy. The 1990s saw a major decline in poverty in Uganda, in part due to smallholder farmers' socioeconomic advancements. Recently, though, focus has switched to a strategy that benefits larger landowners. This strategy is criticized for having negative impacts on smallholders and the environment. Such criticism is consistent with widespread calls for a "paradigm shift" and "rethinking agriculture and the search for more desirable alternatives" in response to unsustainable and unfair effects of agricultural modernisation.

Agroecology is one solution that is gaining popularity because it uses ecological principles to design and manage farming systems in a way that makes them sustainable, resilient, and productive. Agroecology emphasizes the capacity of local communities to produce and scale-up innovations through farmer-to-farmer research and extension initiatives, and is "knowledge intensive (rather than capital intensive), tends toward small, highly diversified farms."

Working with women

Smallholder farmers account for 80% of agricultural production in Sub-Saharan Africa. And the female labour force participation rate in agriculture is the highest in the world. However, life is difficult for rural women. Women do not have the same rights as males and are sometimes forced to juggle home tasks and agricultural work - sowing, weeding, and harvesting crops, as well as cooking for their family and collecting firewood and water. And it can be considerably more difficult for women to achieve the same results on their farms as males since they frequently have less access to land, agricultural extension services, and technologies.

broader implications. When women flourish, they tend to invest more in their homes and families, providing more nutritious meals for their children and keeping them healthy. In reality, the UN Food and Agriculture Organization estimates that if women had equal access to productive resources as males, they could raise farm yields by 20-30%, reducing the number of hungry people in the world by 12-17%.

Working with medium-sized businesses

BIGLAD Agri-Tourism Farm techniques are bottom-up and territorial in nature, assisting in the delivery of contextualized solutions to local problems that put people at the centre. BIGLAD Agri-Tourism Farm promotes a holistic and integrated approach to the design and management of sustainable agriculture and food systems that incorporates ecological and social concepts and principles. It aims to improve the interactions of plants, animals, humans, and the environment while also addressing the need for socially equitable food systems in which people have control over what they eat and how and where it is produced. It is no longer possible to look at food, livelihoods, health and the management of natural resources separately. BIGLAD Agri-Tourism Farm embraces systems–thinking through holistic approaches needed to address these complex and interdependent challenges.

Sustainability: BIGLAD Agri-Tourism Farm assists enterprises in selling inexpensive, appealing products and services to low-income households where they can do so economically, allowing them to continue and grow their operations over time (and when our interventions end).

Scalability:To meet this increasing demand, BIGLAD Agri-Tourism Farm encourages more home investment in enhanced food systems in collaboration with local companies. Ongoing program investments are maintained to a minimal after early investments to ignite the new market. With the help of local governments, the private market can expand as additional enterprises copy new product and service models or enter new markets.

Our three thematic areas will be underpinned by five cross-cutting themes:

The notion of food systems, which describes the relationships between producers, consumers, the environment, and policy, is a beneficial method of combining the approaches and serves as the prism through which we analyse our approaches, interventions, and programs.

Our approach

Farms and ecosystems managed using agro-ecological methods to improve the four dimensions of food security - availability, access, stability, and utilization - which contribute to lowering rural poverty, strengthening resilience, encouraging local development, and improving the livelihoods of communities.

Customers (such as households) are willing to pay for organic manure

Businesses (medium-sized businesses) see business opportunities in waste and sanitation

Financing institutions offer credit products to customers and businesses

Local governments are responsible for setting rules and regulations.