Other Income generation Ideas
Status: 
Step:
4
The main objectives of this project is the fruit farm and agroforestry project. When their is harvest, we can consider fruit drying and honey making, but until then other income generation ideas are needed, as well as teaching about business, markets and economy.
In this task we are looking for ideas of small businesses that the co-operative can handle and succeed in.
Hi Sinead
Looking at a variety of ways of generating income is a good idea, people in Nabitende may have a variety of skills and interests.
You were telling me that you were trying to post a copy of Get Up It's Time. The Business Hand-Book for Uganda
which contains many ideas for small businesses, specifically aimed at Uganda.
"Young people often lack the necessary skills to develop their business ideas, such as performing a market analysis, differentiating their product or service from the competition, preparing cash-flow statements and bookkeeping. This material has been developed to support young people with practical advice in the field."
Its rather a big file so I don't know if Paddy will be able to download it.
According to http://opentraining.unesco-ci.org/cgi-bin/page.cgi?g=Detailed%2F2121.htm... it was produced by Uganda Industrial Research Institute (UIRI); GTZ
If you want to get hold of a printed copy, that site gives contact details of
Telephone: 256-041-285689/286245;
Fax: 256-041-286695;
Email: uiri@utlonline.co.ug
You can find a copy attached to my post at http://www.nabuur.com/en/village/masaka/project/task/discuss-and-researc...
Mary
Hi,
I am new to Nabuur, to this village, and to development activities in general, and I have never been to Africa. My expertise is in project management, with some limited exposure to environmental conservation. So if my suggestions are misguided, please let me know!
With regard to alternative sources of income, I had a couple of thoughts:
If any of these ideas appeal or sound potentially viable, I would be happy to do some initial research. Please let me know what you think.
Cheers,
Angela
Hullo Angela,
Thanks very much for the ideas and I have to tell you that you are not outside the project and should feel fine to go ahead in contacting that organisation with support to planting trees to replace those cut. As we are in phase 2, planting fruit trees, it is our desire too to plant other trees for charcol, cooking, constructions. As per the rabbit project, it would be good and easy to maintain but no market for it unless you get us the market and all the necessary methods of export, but it would work for the elderly and young orphans. We have some areas for tourism but are far from Nabitende. We appreciate your contributions and please keep it up, don't give up.
Paddy
Thank you for the encouragement Paddy. I'll see if I can find any NGOs that support the growing of trees.
Angela
Trees For The Future. www.tftf.org
Ken Hargesheimer
what are the other local industries around? could herbs or quick growing crops be planted while you wait for the trees to mature.
Thanks Ken, Trees for the Future looks promising. The correct web address seems to be www.treesftf.org.
They appear to supply both training and seeds, which would be very valuable. From an initial reading of the website, they seem to advocate use of non-indigenous "nurse" trees that give quick results and can help establish conditions for native trees to regenerate. I wonder though if any local native species could fill the role? What are the local native species that are used for firewood in particular?
Trees for the Future have an application form available (attached). If we want to submit an application, we will need to decide answers to the following key questions from the application form:
- What products or agroforestry techniques are most important for your project?
- What training topics are being requested?
- Are you requesting seed? If yes, what species and how exactly do you intend to use them?
I think the best way to answer these questions will be to review the Agroforestry Manual from the website (attached). This is quite a comprehensive document, but it is also a complete agroforestry training manual. Pages 8-20 describe the different uses of agroforestry, which might be a good starting point.
Perhaps it would be worthwhile for some project participants to complete the training as a first step. Or is a simplified summary required to help work out the most appropriate form of agroforestry for Nabitende?
Also please see page 29 for a way to make a fuel-efficient stove that should reduce the amount of fuel wood required. Are these used in Nabitende?
HI ANGELLA, THOSE VERY GOOD IDEAS THAT CAN HELP IN INCOME GENERATION.
TONNY.
Paddy, I found a very interesting organisation - the Uganda Community Tourism Association (www.ucota.or.ug). Have you heard of them? If at some stage the Nabitende community is interested in developing some small-scale tourism, this might be a good place to start.
The website also markets handcrafts. Could this be a possible market for any handcrafts produced in Nabitende (whether made from rabbit skins or otherwise)?
www.solarcookers.org has plans for solar cookers which can be used for many things besides cooking food. I have a document on this.
Ken
Yes - I've been pursuing this option under the Project Room thread. From what I've read so far, it seems that solar cookers can fill a large part of the cooking energy needs, and they should certainly be introduced in Nabitende.
However in researching people's practical experiences it seems that wood stoves are often still used in conjunction with solar cookers, for example to cook on days when there is insufficient sunlight for the solar cooker to work. This being the case, my thinking is that it would be better to have fuel-efficient stoves rather than inefficient ones to fill this need.
Hullo Angela,
Thanks for the ideas and I believe it can be a relief to our women here with the problem of firewood. I t would help but may not last long in the villages. I would suggest that to deal with this, we need wood saving stoves and then plant trees that can keep producing timber for fire. In the harvest times, they can use the cobs when dry. With the solar cookers, unless they have batteries, the problem may still remain.
Concerning the income generation, that is good to have the tourists around but we need training on what to put around for the tourists. We need some training on good crafts like beads, neckless, etc that can capture the people on the look and can be durable. This wood work so much for the elderly and AIDS patients.
Paddy.
Hi Paddy,
The great thing about the solar cookers is that they don't need batteries or any source of power. They can be made from cardboard, foil and glue, and cook food passively in the sun.
Ken has provided plans for one type of cooker (on the following page - not sure how to add it to the resources tab: http://www.nabuur.com/en/village/nabitende/project/task/project-room?pag...). If you can get hold of some cardboard, glue and foil, perhaps you can try just making one as a trial?
If you can get one made and try it out, then you will see an immediate benefit. Although it would mean someone needs to spend some time on it, once the cookers are made people will have a lot more time they can spend on farming. Could really help the success of the project.
Angela
Hi again,
Regarding the potential for income from crafts, my thinking was that there may be a market for the types of crafts that the local people may already produce. What craft skills do they already have? Do they make bowls or mats for example?
I think Ken's comment below is relevant here. Since all these suggestions would take time to investigate and implement, it's important not to stretch too far - especially your time as the local rep. There are only so many hours in the day! Perhaps it would be best to set these ideas aside and allow the focus to remain on making a success of the farm itself? (Although I still think that making solar cookers would be time well spent).
I will take your guidance on this, as you know best how well things are going and whether there is time for these other activities.
Anglea
Fruit farming and agroforestry are long term projects and rather involved. What is being done to help villagers now?
To reduce the use of fire wood, has anyone constructed a solar cooker? They work and work great. Anyone can make one out of cardboard, glass and glue. There are many types.
Are they hungry? Is anyone growing vegetables? They can feed themselves if they have a little area of land. Is there a market for vegetables during the dry season? Using bucket drip irrigation they can grow during the dry season when prices are highest besides having food for the family. It takes work; not funds.
After growing for market for a year, I am willing to mail you seed for new crops: spaghetti squash, soy for protein, sweet maize, popping maize, etc. I want proof of interest before doing so.
Ken