In March 2020, the Government of Uganda rolled out control measures such as movement restrictions and curfews, aimed at curbing the spread of COVID-19. These well-intended efforts severely disrupted the agriculture value chain. Farmer access to genuine inputs like fertilizers, and seeds became a challenge. Moreover, farmer attitudes towardsfertilizers were still negative. A combination of these factors led to a dwindling of crop yields.

Tonight, we tell the story of Jimmy Opiyo, a former street kid in Lira City to a medium-scale farmer, who is now using quality fertilizers to increase farm yields, thanks to an intervention by USAID Feed the Future Inclusive Agricultural Markets with their partners Export Trading Group (ETG).
   
Like any other day here in the Bar sub-county in the Lira district, Jimmy Opiyo is monitoring and supervising the spraying of his maize farm.

Today he is concerned after finding a couple of fall armyworms manifesting on some crops, which could be a danger that will lead to low harvest.

A few years ago, Opiyo was a street boy in Lira city. Today, he has found a new lease of life in farming, and this planting season he has cultivated 25 acres of maize.

He is one of the farmers who benefited from USAID Feed the Future IAM intervention under which the project worked with input dealers – like Export Trading Group, to provide farmers with fertilizers at a subsidized price. Through this project Opio has acquired knowledge on how to apply land fertilizers and modern farming practices like the use of pesticides to kill the fall armyworms, he will harvest around 35 bags from each acre.

The former street boy has become a renowned farmer in Bar Sub County.
Adong Patricia is an agricultural officer in Lira district, who says more farmers are embracing the use of fertilizers in order to boost their harvest, following the USAID intervention.

Small-scale farmers had for long been registering dwindling yields despite cultivating on large chunks of land. But with the application of the Panda power fertilizer, Maize has become a lucrative crop in the Lango sub-region.

As of August 2022, the World Bank warned that food insecurity remains high in Uganda. But with interventions like the USAID Feed the Future IAM, this may be history soon.