Beyond your own field

An exchange programme for young German and Ugandan farmers shows: There is one shared earth, a variety of ways to work it, and even more to learn from one another

Brigitte Basedau nahm 2019 an dem dreimonatigen Praktikantenaustauschprogramm der Schorlemer Stiftung teil
Brigitte Basedau took part in a three-month intern exchange programme of the Schorlemer Foundation in 2019 (c) private

By Andreas Hermes Akademie (AHA)

AHA and DBV

The Andreas Hermes Akademie (AHA) has stood for over 60 years for the comprehensive education and training of farmers in Germany. It strengthens their ability to take responsibility for themselves, their business and the community.

All contributions

By Jan Rübel

Jan Rübel is author at Zeitenspiegel Reportagen, a columnist at Yahoo and writes for national newspapers and magazines. He studied History and Middle Eastern Studies.

All contributions

After Brigitte Basedau arrived on the farm of Joseph Male near Kampala in Uganda, far from the farm machinery at her home in Schleswig-Holstein, Germany, she initially felt thwarted. After a while, she became less distracted and eventually, her focus sharpened. “I planted some cress once as a child, but the experience of watching one individual tomato plant from seed to harvest, the way I did on the farm in Uganda, is what I took back to Germany with me,” says the farmer-to-be. For three months, from October 2019 to January 2020, she interned on Male’s farm. “There I learned to focus on the individual plant. In Germany, I had been used to seeing everything green on a particular field as a community, to thinking in terms of structures,” Basedau, now in her mid-thirties, remembers a little more than a year later. “Ugandan agriculture, however, asks a different set of questions: ‘What is possible? What can I achieve with the means at my disposal?’ Every single plant counts.”

 

Ich bin ein Alternativtext
Brigitte Basedau and two other workers in a field in Uganda (c) private

She would not trade those three months for anything. Basedau took part in the intern exchange programme of the Schorlemer Foundation, part of the German Farmers’ Association (Deutscher Bauernverband e. V., DBV), supported by the special initiative “ONE WORLD – No Hunger” of the Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development. Since 2019, young farmers have been visiting German and Ugandan farms as part of a mutual exchange. The participants learn about the different climatic conditions and the possibilities for adapting to them, they share one another tricks and techniques from each other, and they learn to immerse themselves in a different culture. The German project partner is the Andreas Hermes Academy (AHA); in Uganda, UNYFA, the Young Farmers’ Federation of Uganda, organizes the intern exchange programme.

 

 

 

For Basedau, who is just completing her bachelor’s degree in agricultural economics, it was something of a crash course in the agricultural practices of the entire East African country, because Male is not just running one farm. His “Avail Group” also operates a farm for demonstrating cultivation techniques, and advises other farmers. Together with Male, she travelled to countless farms during her three months in Uganda, scrutinised soils and discussed solutions to problems and options for improvement. “I learned a lot about trimming and irrigation. In Uganda it is often hot and dry, and then there are heavy rains. Typical and previously reliable weather patterns are happening less often or at different times due to climate change – a problem we are facing in Germany as well.”

 

Something that impressed Basedau was the traditional practice of using fish pond water for irrigation and fertilisation at the same time, which saves costs because farmers need to buy less synthetic fertiliser. “Male always uses a lot of homemade organic fertiliser and tests it in a barrel with water lilies to determine the optimum dosage.”

 

Kohl und Salatanbau auf einer Farm im ostafrikanische Uganda
Cabbage and lettuce growing on Joseph Male's farm (c) private

 

Basedau grew up on a farm in Schleswig-Holstein. The certified teacher of economic policy and English will take over the operation this summer. “It has been in the family since the 16th century. My siblings became doctors and don’t want to take over the farm – so now it’s up to me.” This is why she decided to study agricultural economics and is looking forward to the up-and-coming farming adventure: She says she wants to make the arable farm organic. She took on the internship in Uganda to broaden her horizons, to steel herself for the experience of having her own farm “I saw so many new things in Uganda,” she says. “It is more of a horticultural and vegetable growing country.” In the beginning, this overwhelmed her, she remembers. “But what fascinated me was that in Uganda, you are closer to the plant, work it with your hands and accompany it through its life cycle.”

 

Joseph Male and Brigitte Basedau (c) private

Ultimately, she learned a lot at the interpersonal level as well. “I am rather impatient by nature. In Uganda, I learned to live with things that can’t be changed and that you have to believe in your goals.” Back in Germany, this attitude helped her to accept measures and limitations imposed by the pandemic. “I focus my energy on the positive.”

 

Joseph Male smiles when he hears her tell her story. And confirms: “We might be completely different people, but we share a passion for the countryside and for farming.” Together, they came up with more than a few strategies for the farmland. “We immediately began acting as a team, as if we had worked together for years. We still maintain daily contact with one another via WhatsApp.” Male, 35, is sitting in a car. He joins us via Zoom on his smartphone. He is just coming from a farm with six greenhouses for hot peppers and tomatoes. “Hardly anyone in this country eats the peppers, but they are a good commodity for export.”

 

He and Basedau had delivered the seedlings to the farm, and now he is checking on their progress. “The tomatoes are infested with whiteflies. I saw that one of the windows wasn’t closed all the time; there is a cassava plantation nearby, which attracts the animals.” What, in his opinion, did Basedau take away from her internship? “That farming here requires you to be more engaged – with a number of factors, with the agricultural circumstances, with a necessary measure of flexibility.” Also, when they think of Africa, many Europeans only think of the dark sides, like poverty. “Brigitte also came to know the cheerful lifestyle!” And: “She saw how hard the people work, and what long hours.”

 

Joseph Male runs a farm with his "Avail Group" to demonstrate farming techniques (c) private

 

Nehemiah Buwuule made the journey in the opposite direction. He travelled from his fruit farm in the Luweero district to Germany’s Rhineland, to the Felten family orchard in Meckenheim. “I wanted to learn about growing fruit under different climatic conditions,” says Buwuule, 38, in a phone conversation. We are communicating via WhatsApp. At the moment he is sitting in a restaurant with his family eating beef stew with rice. “Here in Uganda, agriculture is often a person’s livelihood, not so much a business.” But earning money with his own products is exactly what fascinates him. “I was surprised that Manfred can store his apples for five months in a cold room,” he says. “That is excellent. In Uganda, post-harvest losses are just too great.”

 

After his three months, Buwuule looked for cooperation partners; now he has joined forces with three people. A cold storage room is in the planning phase. “I also realised that cultivation and water can be seen as separate issues. On my farm, there isn’t enough water to increase productivity, so I am planning to build a well.” He learned a lot from the Feltens at the personal level in particular. “We got on very well. I was accepted like a member of the family.” Initial difficulties were quickly overcome. “I took the warmest clothing I had, but it was not enough for a winter in Germany. Fortunately, the Feltens took me shopping right away – after that, I was ok.”

 

He was also impressed by the way farmers in Germany try to keep the farm as one. “In Uganda, handing over a property to the next generation causes problems,” he says. “The land is more and more fragmented, acreages keep getting smaller because of inheritances being split.” He says he will try to buy land, keep it, and pass the whole lot on to his children.

 

Nehemiah Buwuule cutting trees at the fruit farm in Meckenheim (c) private

 

It is nine o’clock in the morning. The wall clock in Manfred Felten’s office is ticking loudly as he talks about his former intern, Nehemiah. “It was just great fun to work with him,” he says. “Basically, he became part of our core family for three months. We adapted to each other quickly.” For example when it came to food. Nehemiah, Manfred says, was more used to rich foods, but he showed an interest in the many types of vegetables served here. “Only dairy products he never quite trusted. They are less common in Uganda because of occasional problems with the cooling chain.”

 

Felten doesn’t have much time, he has to take apples to the market. “Nehemiah grows strawberries, too. But in Uganda there are other cold phases to promote flowering. You get to know the fruit from a different perspective.” He was also interested in the higher degree of mechanisation in Germany, “for example the computer-controlled fertilisation and irrigation of our strawberries in polytunnels.” It is true that many methods cannot be implemented one-to-one, as the problems are too different. “For example, we can’t get enough light to our apple trees, which is not much of a problem in Uganda.” But perhaps it is possible to learn a thing or two about organisation.

 

“You always take something away from other countries. I travel a lot, too, and like to see how agriculture works in other places. I would never presume to tell others how to run their farm!”

 

Manfred Felten owner of the fruit farm (c) private

Felten says he misses their laughing and singing together and celebrating Christmas and the New Year with him. He learned a lot about the Ugandan zest for life. The programme started in 2019 with four German and fifteen Ugandan farmers. Then came Corona and stopped the programme from continuing with the second generation. The downtime was used for webinars, where content and experiences were exchanged. An example: When Dr Philipp Zimmermann, who had been invited by the Schorlemer Foundation, spoke about the possibility of breeding insects as a basis for animal feed, he immediately inspired a young farmer from the Kapchorwa region in eastern Uganda. “To feed his chickens and pigs, he had been using feed made from fish meal, which comes from Lake Victoria, a relatively long distance away,” Zimmermann recalls.

 

“But this is getting more and more expensive because of decreasing fish populations.” When Zimmermann – a veterinarian who runs the information services portal “entosiast.de” about the potential of beneficial insects – reported on the larvae of the black soldier fly as an alternative protein source for animal feed in autumn 2020, the farmer sprang into action: He had Zimmerman introduce him to the right network, took a training course on breeding black soldier flies at Makerere University in Kampala, and has been building his own fly breeding operation since January of this year. Because the larvae of the black soldier fly are omnivores, they can convert residual materials from agriculture and food production, even human and animal excretions, into high-value protein. “This turns into a sustainable cycle,” says Zimmermann.

 

Back to Meckenheim, and to Kiel. Felten is determined to take a trip to Nehemiah’s farm, “after Corona”. And Basedau will be going back to Kampala as well. The relationships forged through the exchange programme will stay strong well past the three months.

Back to overview

Ähnliche Beiträge

The world needs empowered farmers!

The world needs empowered farmers! But what does that mean and how can it be organized? With the support of the SEWOH partners, journalist Jan Grossarth has gathered guiding thoughts on the topic in an article.

Organised agricultural lobbying is rare in industrialised nations. Is the political influence of certain interest groups that have excellent parliamentary connections and work quietly behind the scenes in aid of meat exports or biomass subsidies excessively large and insufficiently transparent? Such questions are a subject of discussion in Europe and the USA, but also in Brazil or Argentina. And for good reason. With regard to global food security another, to some extent countervailing question arises: how can “good lobbying” for the development interests of the world’s smallholders emerge? Would it not, after all, be widely beneficial, and also necessary in order to ensure a stable global food supply, if the hundreds of millions of local farmers in Africa and Asia were able to represent their income- and development-related interests more effectively in parliaments, the media and international organisations?

Read more

Farmers in revolt-their movement brings unity and hope

Since 2014, a law has guaranteed all Indians sufficient healthy food at affordable prices. Now one of the biggest waves of protest in history is rocking the subcontinent. Farmers are fighting back against laws that abolish guaranteed minimum prices and put nutrition programmes in jeopardy.  

 

Read more

Banking on innovation and sustainability in the cocoa value chain

Juliette Kouassi founded the cocoa cooperative ABOUd'CAO in Côte d'Ivoire, which dismantles traditional role definitions. The aim is to promote women producers and "throw anything away in the cocoa value chain, by rendering value to everything."

Read more

How the Green Innovation Centre in Mali backs women in the San lowlands

Proper nutrition. An adequate diet. Higher incomes and more employment in rural areas. These are the goals of the 15 Green Innovation Centres established in Africa and Asia on behalf of the BMZ. But how are these goals put into practice in Bamako, Mali?

Read more

Creating Prospects through Income, Employment and Participation

Perspectives must be created and existing potentials in the agricultural and food sector must be intensified so that people have the courage to pursue their future in rural areas. In its projects, the SEWOH promotes a comprehensive approach that focuses in particular on the needs of young people.

Read more

The hope of development cooperation lays in innovation

Policy makers wish for innovation. But what is an innovation that truly takes Africa a step forward? With the support of the SEWOH partners, journalist Jan Grossarth took a critical look at the demand for innovation.

Is innovation a cure? A meaningless filler? Even problematic? And: In what way? Taking a critical post-colonial look at the past, the “innovation history” of Africa appears to be a double-edged sword, in any case. Historian Clapperton Chakanetsa Mavhunga, who teaches at MIT in the USA, deplores the failure and even largely destructive effect of “western” technology and knowledge exports to Africa. In his works about innovation in Africa, “capitalistic entrepreneurship” appears as “imperialism” in modified form and downright “parasitical” in its nature. A problematic definition of innovation, he says, has been transferred to Africa particularly from Europe. A definition that is limited to technical aspects, industrial scaling and commercial use.

Read more

From Space to Seed: Innovation for world nutrition

From crop forecasts out of space to resistant seeds: What ideas and technologies have been developed in recent years to revolutionize the world's nutrition? We present a selection of innovations that could be decisive in the fight against hunger.

Read more

Agroecology: a global political guiding perspective?

Agroecology is a popular buzzword in food policy worldwide. It is based on a complex concept that journalist Jan Grossarth, with the support of the SEWOH partners, has examined and called into question.

Agroecology cannot be defined in one phrase. It would take some pages. As a political guiding perspective – perhaps because of its variety – it is suitable to pleasing everyone. The European Commission is relying on this approach as part of the Green Deal as its 10-year transformation plan, and the term is also mentioned in the Farm to Fork food strategy of the EU Commission. The Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) has commissioned its leading experts from the Committee on World Food Security (CFS) to shed light on the approach in a 163-page report (the HLPE Report, 2019). The summary alone uses eleven key points in its definition. An agroecological approach, it says, “favours the use of natural processes, limits the use of external inputs, promotes closed cycles with minimal negative externalities and stresses the importance of local knowledge and participatory processes” – while also being designed to reduce social inequalities and to help the sciences to gain in importance. 

Read more

Agroecology at UN level: The FAO's Scaling up Agroecology Initiative

Growing scientific evidence and local experiences demonstrate how agroecology has the potential to offer a holistic response to the multiple and interrelated challenges facing food systems.

Read more

The garden of agroecology: A few real-life examples

The challenges of population growth, dwindling biodiversity and climate change require to rethink our current food systems and call for solution approaches in terms of an agroecological transformation.

Read more

Why the transformation of our food systems is imperative

Current crises highlight the need to transform food systems. Dr Sinclair, team leader of the World Food Security Committee, presents 13 agro-ecological principles that might be effective for change.

Read more

Ms Neubert, what is a trilemma? And what can be done about it?

In order to alleviate the trilemma of land use, the climate crisis, the destruction of biodiversity and the food crisis must be addressed simultaneously. Susanne Neubert explains in an interview what such strategies might look like.

Read more

A globally popular export

"One for all, all for one" - this motto became the basis for action of agricultural cooperatives that were founded in the 19th century. They became a success story that will continue to be written well into the 21st century.

Read more

Meet the people: Joseph Ngaah

Joseph Ngaah is chairman of the Kakamega County Farmers Association in Kenya. Through his commitment at national and local level, he gives farmers a voice - both in the media and with political decision-makers. Within the SEWOH, he cooperates with the Andreas Hermes Academy, the Green Innovation Centers and TMG - Sustainable Think Tank.

Read more

Labels, customs tariffs and supply chain legislation: Do they benefit or harm smallholders?

In the discussion about sustainability in supply chains, European states focus on labels, customs tariffs and government regulations. With the support of the SEWOH partners, Jan Grossarth questions these measures.

After the eight-storey Rana Plaza factory collapsed in Bangladesh in April 2013, killing over a thousand textile workers under the rubble, the issue of human rights in sewing factories dominated global news for a few days. The initial shock turned into shame. After all, wasn’t everyone who bought cheap T-shirts and jeans somehow responsible? This was followed by a political debate: Hadn’t the disaster happened in a domain where the state, i.e. Bangladesh, should have ensured compliance with its laws? Or, on the other hand, do we not have a say in the regulations determining how the products we consume are manufactured? Not only through consumption, but through our government and companies?

Read more

Drones for Inclusive Growth in Agriculture

BASF’s project Drones for Smallholder Farmers aims to build an inclusive business model that will facilitate access of smallholders to drones for spraying crop protection products. A report by Dr. Diana Moran.

Read more

The path from the greenhouse into practice

Innovative ideas like apps are popular showcases. But for the successful implementation of an innovation, thinking beyond the boundaries of projects is necessary. Lennart Woltering explains in an interview how to move from the greenhouse into practice.

Read more

Deforestation and ecosystem conversion: a strict EU legal framework is imperative

Christine Scholl, Senior Advisor at WWF Germany, explains why a binding and comprehensive EU regulation is crucial in avoiding deforestation and conversion of valuable ecosystems and what such legislation must take into account.

Read more

We begins with you: Three propositions for consumer communication

Generation Z (1995-2010) is forcing manufacturers of consumer goods to rethink their production values. The “Greta effect” not only compels companies to act. It also promises great potential for development cooperation to reach its goals.  

Read more

The right to nutrition: how we can realise it

Stefan Schmitz is head of the Crop Trust and has been SEWOH Commissioner until 2019. We asked him which aspects of the SEWOH could be groundbreaking in order to achieve global goals such as SDG 2 at a national and a global level.

Read more

Supply chains: “The EU’s general principle is to support, not to punish”

Aside from the German Federal government, EU institutions are also encouraging the introduction of a supply chain law. What would be the consequences? Questions for Bettina Rudloff of the German Institute for International and Security Affairs (SWP).

Read more

A masterplan for nutrition governance

Ending worldwide hunger by 2030 requires effective governance. This masterplan is based on the experience of the GIZ global programme for “Food and Nutrition Security, Enhanced Resilience,” which works on improving nutrition governance in ten countries around the world.

Read more

Creating a political momentum for global food governance

To feed the world's population in 2050, "the fine art of governance" is required, according to Jan Grossarth. With the help of the SEWOH partners, he has shed light on what this art includes and what challenges it encounters.

There has been some modest progress everywhere and in many thousands of local projects. But what if this won’t be enough in view of the global challenge? According to UN forecasts, Africa’s population is set to double by 2050, reaching over two billion people. Yet food imports on the continent are already exceeding exports, so it is not providing enough food for itself. Climate forecasts are predicting that in some African (and Asian) regions average temperatures will rise by 3 degrees or more. Moreover, deserts are spreading, with the prospect that development cooperation will be ineffective if it merely distributes resources under the watering can principle. 

Read more

In the land of conflicts 

Land is the foundation of life for most Ugandans. In central Uganda, an ancient land tenure system has caused an impasse for both landlords and tenants hence causing conflicts for decades. An innovative approach to conflict solving, and awareness-raising is about to create change.

Read more

Global Hunger Index: Political action is the key

The World Hunger Index 2020 indicates that the goal of "Zero Hunger by 2030" will not be met. Miriam Wiemers, leading expert for the World Hunger Index, traces the main challenges and describes how the path to Zero Hunger can be taken.

Read more

Genetic engineering, fertilisers and agricultural chemicals - conflicting perspectives

Is modern genetic engineering an innovative answer for ensuring global food supply? And what about fertilisers and agricultural chemicals? Felix Prinz zu Löwenstein believes all three are part of the problem. Matthias Berninger thinks rejecting these new technologies is a risky ideological proposition. A debate.

Read more

Babban Gona's holistic financing approach

What are innovative financing mechanisms and how can financing help to scale innovations? Kola Masha, Managing Director of Babban Gona explains his holistic business model, which he built up in Nigeria with financial help and support from the German KfW.

Read more

Even innovations take their time

Some good ideas never become reality. It takes patience, long-term thinking and the courage to learn from mistakes. Based on a conversation with software developer Simon Riedel, journalist Jan Rübel focused on the challenges of innovation in an international development context.

Read more

Why successful transformation needs strong governance?

The special initiative One World no hunger (SEWOH) is one donor nation's attempt to decisively push forward the achievement of Sustainable Development Goal 2 (SDG 2). Observations and conclusions from the accompanying discourse.

In the summer of 2019, António Guterres, Secretary-General of the United Nations (UN), raised the alarm on the growing number of people going hungry. A “World Food Systems Summit” (UNFSS) in the autumn of 2021 intends to draw the necessary public attention to the issue of combatting hunger and increasing sustainability and provide fresh impetus for transforming the entire food system. In 2014, Germany’s Federal Minister of Economic Cooperation and Development, Gerd Müller, launched a remarkable experiment: SEWOH, the Special Initiative ONEWORLD No Hunger. The idea was to drastically advance UN Sustainable Development Goal 2 (SDG 2) with a sector approach initially driven by a single donor nation. Germany has invested around 1.5 billion euros annually towards achieving the UN goal, becoming the world’s second-largest donor in the fields of food security, rural development and agriculture. The initiative has explored new possibilities, yet it also had to face its limits. Vastly exacerbated by the Covid-19 pandemic, it had to realise the vulnerabilities of global food security.  

Read more

Climate change affects everyone, but not equally

Claudia Ringler, Deputy Division Director of EPTD at IFPRI, describes the adverse impacts of climate change and its related risks on populations in poor countries. What can be done to reduce the impact of climate change on food and nutrition security?

Read more

Climate crises

Population growth, lawlessness and dwindling resources, accelerated by climate change, are leading to conflicts that leave thousands dead across the Sahel every year. "Many will leave their homelands or perish from hunger, disease or wars. Only rapid socioeconomic development [...] would be able to prevent this disaster."

Read more