Nestled in Uganda’s Kamwanyi village on the lush western slopes of Mount Elgon — a vast, 24-million-year-old extinct volcano that straddles the border between Uganda and Kenya — Francis Gidegi’s three-acre farm benefits from fertile soils, cool mountain air, and steady rains.
Nestled in Uganda’s Kamwanyi village on the lush western slopes of Mount Elgon — a vast, 24-million-year-old extinct volcano that straddles the border between Uganda and Kenya — Francis Gidegi’s three-acre farm benefits from fertile soils, cool mountain air, and steady rains. The volcano’s higher reaches are protected as a national park, but its lower slopes sustain more than 500,000 people.
Every decision Gidegi makes is deliberate. The 46-year-old delights in naming the deep-rooted indigenous trees — like jackfruit, avocado, and Cordia africana — that he plants to bind the soil. He also grows perennial crops, like robusta coffee, that stabilize the land alongside short-term crops like onions and maize. He explains that the trenches and contours he’s carved into the hillside slow water flow and prevent erosion.
It’s not the quickest or easiest way to produce crops, but for Gidegi, these efforts are necessary to safeguard his family of 15 in a landscape that offers both abundance and deadly risks. “Working like this is the only way we can stay,” he says. “Otherwise, it is too dangerous.”
Read more at: Yale Environment 360
