ALOWA is implementing a project “Enhancing the Capacity of women farmers to practice Regenerative Agriculture in Uganda”. The project aims at promoting the practice of Regenerative agriculture that builds soil carbon stocks and prevent soil erosion. Regenerative agriculture is a more holistic approach to agriculture than conventional farming. It focuses on improving soil quality and adding more organic life back to the soil. In Uganda, Low soil quality is leading to a reduced amount of arable topsoil on farms all around the world. Conventional farming practices that are common in Uganda like tilling, carbon mining, and applying salt-based fertilizers and other chemicals can lead to runoff and soil erosion, which robs the land of its resources.

Today, the agriculture industry is one of the largest emitters of CO2. When combined with forestry, agriculture makes up a third of all human-made greenhouse gas emissions. ALOWA launched the project to support women farmers in Uganda to embrace regenerative agriculture one option of reducing greenhouse gas emissions. The project is being implemented in 4 districts of Jinja, Rukungiri, Arua and Lira. Through trainings, ALOWA enables women farmers embrace a collection of farming practices that help to sequester carbon, improve soil quality, reduce erosion and runoff, and generally offer a more sustainable way of growing food.

By supporting women farmers to practice Regenerative Agriculture, ALOWA’s hope is to improve the water cycle by increasing the water holding capacity of the land. At ALOWA, a practice is considered regenerative agriculture if it does the following things;

a) Increases the resiliency and biodiversity of an ecosystem.

b) Improves water retention and percolation, and makes water runoff safer and cleaner.

c) Builds soil health and quality

d) Doesn’t just avoid harming to the land, but actually helps to reverse; or offset the carbon emissions of traditional agriculture practices.

e) Works with whole systems, instead of just isolated parts.

Regenerative agriculture is a must, if we want to continue providing enough food to support the world, but we must do it in a more safe and sustainable way that minimizes carbon pollution.