The first week of September saw Kampala inundated with pomp and colour as road show trucks criss-crossed the city, promoting awareness of the East African Community (EAC). We were puzzled. Puzzled because either are two parallel initiatives at EAC integration awareness, or a duplication of effort and resources. This is because we had just entered the city from the western axis, having completed the first leg of the Uganda Component in the on-going Integration for Development campaign across the five Partner States of the EAC. Spearheaded by the East African Business
Council, the campaign is the exploratory phase of the implementation strategy for the East African Agriculture and Rural Development Programme. The focus of the programme is organic agriculture, based on the smallholder farmer as the unit of production.
And so it was that in Uganda, over the month of August, this initiative had been piloted with two projects in western region. These are among the hundreds already mapped across the country, with target of each rural home earning a minimum of Shs3,000,000 per month through exporting high quality organic foodstuffs and related natural resources.
We grew up knowing the Nyakagyera Wonder Water by its strange genesis, namely the water of the Bachwezi. This is a natural ‘stream’ hidden in a wooded gulley between two hills below Katooma Primary School, in Rugaaga Sub-county, Isingiro District. And for decades, it has been one of the sources of domestic water during the dry season. However, since March 2015, this ‘drip’ of a stream seems set to transform the destiny of this area.
Just as its strange genesis, its newfound value is equally a miracle as it were. Out of sheer curiosity, Angella, a hydrologist we had on our team commissioned to conduct a national survey on water access in 72 sub-counties across Uganda, decided to carry a sample of this Nyakagyera water in a bottle. As it settled overnight in a glass beaker, the water separated into three distinct layers: the top, very liquid and colourless, the middle which is milky and the lower layer, that is a thick sledge.
After a series of chemical content analysis, Angella discovered that the liquid layer is the ‘true’ water, complete with essential minerals for industrial bottling. It needs no need artificial purification, since it is ‘distilled’ by the natural process that produces the three layers. And it is this natural distillation process that gives this water its distinct uniqueness of being marketed globally as a premium organic mineral water.
Available data shows that only two similar sources of this wonder water exist globally: one in rural Kazakhstan and another in Brunei. A litre of this wonder water currently goes for $56 in specialty boutiques. Target annual exports will rake in $2.6 billion. The milky component is a raw material for organic lotions and colognes, while the sledge is decomposed algae, a rich resource for organic fertiliser.
Another example is the Mizeero Specialty Coffee. Mizeero is one of the many remote villages in the volcanic hills of Kisoro District. The soils of these villages have properties that render their coffee rich for the production of specialty coffee. Under specialty trade agreements, coffee roasters in Europe and America will buy coffee beans from these villages at $42 per kg. A farmer only needs to produce 4 bags of 60kgs each annually, to earn Shs36 million.
This approach, the stakeholders believe, will see the EAC integration becoming more meaningful to the citizens, than the hitherto seminars, workshops and teenage gyrations on road show trucks.

Source: Daily Monitor

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