National Agricultural Research Organisation (NARO)National Agricultural Research Organisation (NARO)National Agricultural Research Organisation (NARO)

Research Projects

Ongoing Research
Projects

Current Research ongoing at NARO Institutes 

 

Uganda Climate Smart Agricultural Transformation (UCSAT) Project

The Uganda Climate-Smart Agricultural Transformation Project (UCSATP) is a six-year national initiative implemented by the Government of Uganda through the Ministry of Agriculture, Animal Industry and Fisheries (MAAIF), in partnership with the National Agricultural Research Organisation (NARO), the National Animal Genetic Resources Centre and Data Bank (NAGRC&DB), and the Department of Meteorology (DOM) under the Ministry of Water and Environment. 

The project is being rolled out in 69 districts across Uganda’s five regions, with the aim of strengthening climate-smart agriculture, enhancing resilience, and increasing productivity for farmers and communities.

UCSATP is a USD 354.7 million investment, funded through a USD 325 million World Bank loan, a USD 25 million IDA grant, and USD 4.7 million Government of Uganda counterpart contribution.

Project Development Objective (PDO)

The core objective of the UCSAT Project is to increase the productivity, market access, and climate resilience of selected agricultural value chains within the project areas. Furthermore, the project includes a contingency component to respond promptly and effectively to an eligible crisis or emergency.

Transforming Agriculture Through Climate-Smart Practices

The UCSAT Project seeks to fundamentally transform the agricultural landscape by:

Promoting Climate-Smart Agricultural (CSA) Practices: Implementing technologies and techniques that sustainably increase productivity, enhance resilience (adaptation), and reduce/remove greenhouse gases (mitigation) where possible.

Enhancing Productivity: Driving up yields and efficiency across target value chains.

Improving Resilience: Strengthening the capacity of farming systems and communities to withstand and recover from the impacts of climate change.

Development Initiative for Northern Uganda (DINU)

This project seeks to chase poverty and hunger in northern Uganda by diversifying food systems for food and nutrition security, poverty reduction, and inclusive development. With an implementation period of 40 months, the DINU project targets eight (8) districts in two (2) livelihood sub-regions of Acholi and Lango. It has a total indicative budget of 6,375,941.00 EUR, of which 5,738,346.90 EUR is the requested EU contribution. The consortium partners include: SOLIDARIDAD, SG 2000, PALM Corps, Lira University, AUPWAE, AGRENES, and Muni University.

Feed the Future Initiative

The FtF NARO activity is a research and development initiative between the National Agricultural Research Organization (NARO) and USAID with the aim of promoting the use and commercialization of improved technologies with yield and nutritional enhancing characteristics in Uganda. In order to achieve this objective, the activity will focus on the continued improvement of crop genetics, bio-fortification, and integrated pest and disease management for both crops and livestock, in response to social and market needs and other emerging threats. The project started in 2020 and will last for five years at a cost of ten million dollars. Their key attributes include; maturing within 95-135 days with a good aromatic taste, texture that extends and soft on cooking and non-pasty preferred by majority of women. Unlike existing varieties, all the new varieties are aromatic and yield more by 1 tonne per hectare. All these varieties are resistant to Rice Yellow Mottle Virus, Rice Blast and Bacterial Leaf Streak. These varieties will be most beneficial to farmers within the low land areas in Uganda. Figures 1- 4 show different rice varieties with their special attributes.

Market–Oriented and Environmentally Sustainable Beef Meat Industry in Uganda Project (MOBIP)

This project seeks to improve the competitiveness and productivity of the beef sub-sector through fostering gender-responsive, inclusive, and sustainable rangeland, agro-forestry, and water resources management in Uganda.

Nature-based solutions for tea production

Uganda’s tea industry is headed for a boost following the launch of a project targeted at doubling the annual yield of tea to 4 million metric tons. The five-year research project dubbed Nabs4tea (Nature-based solutions for tea production) will be jointly done by Makerere University and Rwebitaba ZARDI of the National Agricultural Research Organization (NARO). Other partners include Aarhus University Denmark, Uganda Tea Association and Kickstart International.
Launching the project during the inception meeting at Makerere University on 16th January 2024, the MUK Vice Chancellor Prof. Barnabas Nawangwe commended the partnership of NARO with Makerere and called on the project team to ensure that they meet the needs of local tea industry players. He said that research and academia needed to be intentionally responsive to the needs of tax payers who support agencies like NARO and Makerere.
He called on the project team to guide Uganda in making the most of its capacity in organic farming.
“I understand that Uganda is the first in organic farming in Africa and only second to India in the world. How can we make the most of that position especially to get great prices to our tea farmers? Research and can help us in this area,” he said.
Speaking on behalf of the NARO Director General, Dr. Kassim Sadiq said that he was glad that research focus had been broadened from only breeding to cover other issues in production like soil quality. Dr. Kassim said that research work needed to comprehensively cover all the areas needed for the economic production of a commodity like tea including the market. He commended the partnership between Makerere University and NARO regarding the project.
Dr. Emmanuel Arthur, the Principal Investigator of the project said that the project was timely since tea was a leading export crop for Uganda and the next highly consumed beverage worldwide after water. Dr. Emmanuel will be assisted by Dr. Alex Nimusiima of Makerere University and Dr. Robooni Tumuhimbise the Director of Research NARL Kawanda.
Speaking on the project, Dr. Tumuhimbise said that the project would seek to roll out solutions that are, nature-based, climate-smart and affordable to farmers and other players in the tea industry. He said that he hoped that such solutions coupled with other interventions in the tea industry would lift the volumes of the tea produced in Uganda from two metric tons per hectare annually towards a full potential of six metric tons per hectare.
According to project literature, the project will identify climate resilient tea varieties as well as work on soils and irrigation and identify export market strategies for the tea thus produced to ensure environmental and economic sustainability in the industry. The team also toured the fields and facilities at Rwebitaba Tea Research Center which is home to the nation’s sole Tea Gene Bank.
As part of capacity building, five Master of Science students and another five PhD students will be sponsored as they undertake research work on the five work packages of the project.

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