To create conditions for people to know what they truly want, working with households and groups through the visionary approach so that families develop shared visions, plan together, and take collective action toward self-reliance through organic agriculture, cooperative savings, and diversified income-generating activities
We envision every household in our group with good sanitation, a permanent residential house, proper washing facilities, and rubbish pits. We see every family with a graduating future within ten years, supported by our cooperative savings at 5 percent interest for school fees and household investments. Every household will have a coffee plantation as a foundation, alongside cocoa and sugar cane, complemented by poultry, piggery, sheep, and goat rearing for diversified income. Our cooperative building will serve as offices, storage for shared materials, and a base for catering services and community events. We see our group evolving from individual middleman sales to cooperative joint marketing of organic coffee and cocoa, commanding fair prices and building lasting prosperity for all 15 households and their children.
Maintaining organic farming practices without herbicides or chemical sprays across all member farms; expanding shade-grown coffee and cocoa agroforestry systems; practising water harvesting through trenching to conserve moisture and reduce erosion; promoting diversified cropping with nutritious food crops alongside cash crops; integrating livestock (poultry, piggery, sheep, goats) into farming systems for manure production and income diversification; building soil health through organic methods, intercropping, and mulching
Facilitating 20 households per village through baseline assessment and visionary approach planning; enabling families to develop shared household visions with father, mother, and children participating together; building group cohesion through weekly collective farming every Friday from 7am to 11am; operating a savings and lending scheme at 5 percent interest for member access to school fees and investment capital; constructing and equipping the cooperative building for offices, storage, and future catering services; transitioning from middleman sales to cooperative joint selling of organic coffee and cocoa; ensuring every household has proper sanitation including latrines, washing facilities, and rubbish pits; diversifying income through animal husbandry alongside crop farming
Areso Doreen works across four parishes selecting two villages annually as primary beneficiaries, with 20 households per village undergoing baseline assessment. The Mutumba Nsambya Twekambe FFLG of 15 households meets every Friday from 7am to 11am for collective farming, dramatically reducing individual labour requirements. As member Alyssa Vincent explains, work that would take two weeks alone is completed in a single day together. The group operates a weekly savings scheme with 5 percent interest loans for school fees and investments. Members have purchased a communal plot and are constructing a cooperative building with roofing complete and doors being installed. Local contact persons in yellow vests and PDM parish chiefs help identify active groups. Mixed-gender and youth participation ensures inclusive engagement. The group plans to expand into cooperative joint selling, catering services, and tent rental for community social events.
The cooperative operates on a collective labour model where 15 households share weekly farming work. Cash income comes from organic coffee, cocoa, and sugar cane, currently sold through local middlemen with plans to transition to cooperative joint marketing for better prices. The weekly savings and lending scheme at 5 percent interest provides members access to capital for school fees and household investments. The cooperative has purchased a plot and is constructing a building for offices, storage, and future catering services, representing collective asset building. Planned income diversification includes poultry, piggery, sheep and goat rearing, tent rental for social events, and catering services. The epicenter manager is deployed by URDT through public-private partnership with local government. The cooperative operates a weekly savings and lending scheme at 5 percent interest, enabling members to access small loans for school fees and household investments.
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Ecosystem Unity:
Victoria Basin forest-savanna mosaic with organic shade-grown coffee and cocoa agroforestry systems
Tropical wet-and-dry climate (Aw) with bi-modal rainfall pattern, moderated by the elevation of the central plateau at approximately 1,200 metres above sea level. The climate supports year-round cultivation of perennial cash crops like coffee and cocoa alongside seasonal food crops.
Bi-modal rainfall with two peaks: the long rains from March to May and the short rains from September to December. Dry spells from January to February and June to August. The group uses water harvesting trenches to trap and retain moisture for crops during dry periods, extending the productive growing season.
Maximum temperatures reach 30-32 degrees Celsius during the dry months of January-February, while minimum temperatures drop to 15-17 degrees Celsius during cooler nights. Conditions are favourable for coffee and cocoa production year-round.
Within the Lake Albert drainage basin, between the Muzizi and Nkusi river systems. The Muzizi River flows northwestward from its source near Mubende, traversing the southern portion of Kagadi District before entering Lake Albert at Ndaiga. Secondary wetlands including the Mpamba and Mutunguru rivers drain into the primary Muzizi system. The farm sits on the plateau interfluves where seasonal streams and tertiary wetland systems originate. The group practises water harvesting through trenching to capture and direct rainfall to their crops.
Groundwater is accessed through boreholes and protected springs. The deeply weathered ferrallitic soils overlying basement rock create variable aquifer conditions. Shallow aquifers near valley bottoms provide relatively accessible water, while deeper boreholes serve the interfluve areas where the farm sits. Spring protection is a community water priority throughout the Bunyoro sub-region.
The farm landscape supports a rich mosaic of cultivated species. Cash crops include arabica coffee, cocoa, and sugar cane, all farmed organically. Food crops include cassava, maize, potatoes, vegetables, cabbages, and leafy greens. Banana groves (matooke) are interspersed throughout. The group is diversifying into animal husbandry including poultry, piggery, sheep, and goat rearing. Indigenous tree species retained on farmland include Ficus species, Albizia species, and Maesopsis eminii providing shade for coffee and cocoa. Wetland vegetation includes papyrus and various sedges. Farm wildlife includes diverse pollinators critical for coffee and cocoa production, monitor lizards, various bird species including sunbirds, weavers, and raptors, and vervet monkeys.
Rolling hills and broad interfluves of the central plateau, with the farm occupying gently sloping to moderately sloping land typical of the Bukungwe area. Shallow valleys containing wetlands and seasonal streams dissect the landscape. The group uses water harvesting trenches along contours to capture rainfall and direct it to crops, adapting the terrain for productive agriculture.
This land lies within the ancestral territory of the Banyoro people and the Bunyoro-Kitara Kingdom, one of the oldest kingdoms in the African Great Lakes region. The Mutumba Nsambya Twekambe FFLG farms on land held by its 15 member households through customary and freehold tenure. The group has also purchased a communal plot for their cooperative building, demonstrating collective investment in shared infrastructure. The epicenter model honours the working premise that people have innate power and wisdom to transform their own lives.
The Bukungwe cultural landscape is characterised by scattered homesteads surrounded by mixed gardens of coffee, cocoa, sugar cane, matooke, cassava, maize, and vegetables, with emerging livestock keeping of poultry, pigs, sheep, and goats. The cooperative building under construction on the groups purchased plot represents a new feature in the cultural landscape, a physical manifestation of collective vision and shared investment. The landscape reflects generations of Banyoro farming practice overlaid with Bakiga settlement patterns, now evolving through the URDT visionary approach into a more intentionally designed productive landscape.
Bukungwe Village has experienced the broader land-use changes of Kagadi District, with historical deforestation for agriculture and settlement, and in-migration of Bakiga farmers from southwestern Uganda. The URDT Epicenter Strategy, established from 2009, introduced the visionary approach to community development. The Mutumba Nsambya Twekambe FFLG was formed through this process, with Areso Doreen deployed as epicenter manager. The group has progressed from initial vision development to active collective farming, a weekly savings and lending scheme at 5 percent interest, purchase of a communal plot, and construction of a cooperative building. They are transitioning from individual middleman sales to cooperative joint marketing of organic coffee and cocoa.
The Muzizi River corridor to the south connects the landscape to the Lake Albert basin. Wetland systems along seasonal streams provide movement pathways for aquatic species and waterbirds. The organic, shade-grown coffee and cocoa farms of the FFLG create semi-natural habitat corridors that complement the URDT green belt forest near Kagadi Town and remnant forest patches. The absence of herbicide use on these farms preserves ground-level biodiversity corridors for insects, amphibians, and small mammals.
Kagadi Town Council and the URDT campus are approximately 2-3 kilometres to the north. Hoima is approximately 80 kilometres to the north. Fort Portal is approximately 120 kilometres to the southwest. Kampala is approximately 252 kilometres to the east via tarmac road. The proximity to Kagadi town provides market access, though bad roads during rainy seasons remain a significant challenge for the epicenter manager and farmers.
