Women Farmers Steer Climate-Smart Agriculture
In Pakur Boma, Rubkona County, women farmers are quietly recasting local agriculture, swapping flood frustration for climate resilience after seasons of conflict and inundation.
Most are widows who rely on the soil to finance school fees, medicines and daily meals, making the success of each seed a household question of survival.
Training and Seeds that Withstand Floods
Coalition for Humanity’s field manager Simon Khamis James Yambala says technical coaching has been decisive, noting, “The group is dominated by women; they embraced every climate-smart lesson we shared.”
Rice, sugarcane, yams and improved sweet-potato vines now thrive even when water laps against fields, turning annual floods from catastrophe into seasonal irrigation.
Nutrition and Markets Grow Together
High demand for rice in Rubkona market means surplus grain quickly converts to cash, diversifying income beyond subsistence for the first time in years.
Kitchen-garden vegetables enrich diets of children and lactating mothers, aligning agriculture with basic public-health goals.
Conservation Locks in Long-Term Gains
Farmers plant trees, avoid burning residues and establish communal woodlots, practices that slow erosion and cut reliance on fragile wetlands.
Local officials applaud the environmental ethic, arguing it strengthens social stability as much as topsoil.
Appeals for Tools, Land and Irrigation
Chairlady Tapisa Nyankuan voices a common hope: “We are committed to farming, but we need more tools, better seeds and pumps to extend production through the dry season.”
Khamis urges government and donors to fund land reclamation, reclaiming fertile acres lost to water, so the women’s momentum is not washed away.
A Template for Recovery Beyond Rubkona
Since January 2024, NGOs including Save the Children, Tearfund and War Child Holland have combined farming support with youth leadership and peace dialogues, weaving livelihoods into reconciliation.
Rubkona’s women now illustrate how climate-smart agriculture can translate immediate harvests into durable community recovery across flood-prone African regions.