By Jacob Okwii, Communications Officer, Mt. Elgon Project 

For farmers on the slopes of Mt. Elgon, restoring the soil is not just about protecting the environment—it is about protecting food, income and the future of their families.

For the people living on the slopes of Mt. Elgon, the effects of climate change are no longer distant warnings—they are part of everyday life.

For David Chesakit, the signs had become impossible to ignore. The land he had farmed since 1998 was no longer giving him what it once did. Heavy rains washed away precious topsoil, soil fertility declined, and landslides increasingly threatened his farm.

The 49-year-old father of nine (09) from Temitek Village in Kamet Sub-county, Bukwo District, remembers a time when his farm produced good harvests of maize, Irish potatoes and bananas before the soil began to change.

“When I got this land in 1998, it was very fertile, and I used to get high yields of maize, Irish potatoes and bananas. Ten years ago, I started realising a change, with all the fertility getting lost due to soil erosion,” David says.

For farmers like David, soil erosion is not an abstract environmental problem. It can mean fewer bags of food, less income and greater uncertainty about how a family will get through the next season.

That is why, in August 2026, the National Environment Management Authority (NEMA), through the Promoting Integrated Landscape Management Approach for Conservation of the Mount Elgon Ecosystem Project (Mt. Elgon Project), took conservation of soil and water training directly to farmers across the region.

The idea was simple: move beyond talking about conservation from workshops, go down on ground and show farmers practical ways to protect the land they depend on.

Learning about soil and water conservation on the land

In communities across the Mt. Elgon landscape, farmers were introduced to practical soil and water conservation measures, including the use of the A-frame to establish contour lines. Rather than keeping the training in a classroom, NEMA’s Mt. Elgon Project trainers and agricultural extension workers demonstrated the practices in farmers’ own fields.

That matters because farmers can immediately see how conservation fits into everyday agriculture. Contour lines help slow rainwater as it moves downhill, reduce soil loss and allow more water to infiltrate into the soil, where it can later support crop growth. Farmers are also encouraged to make use of materials readily available on their farms. Crop residues, weeds, stalks and leaves can be arranged along the contour to form trash lines, while grass strips can be planted along the same contours to slow runoff, trap soil and further protect the land from erosion.

Judith Mutenyo, a Sustainable Land Management Officer with the Mt. Elgon Project, says the approach responds to one of the region’s persistent challenges such as soil erosion on steep slopes.

“Soil and water conservation helps to control soil erosion and conserve water. Over time, the affected land can regain some of its lost fertility,” she says.

The training has so far reached farmers in Chekwir Hills, Yemite and Mukelei Parishes in Bukwo; Kwomo Parish in Kapchorwa; Buluganya Parish in Bulambuli; and Nyondo Parish in Mbale. It is being rolled out across 38 sub-counties in the nine Mt. Elgon project districts.

For David, the lesson came at the right time. After years of watching his land lose fertility, he now sees a practical path forward.

“I am very grateful for the training. I have gained knowledge and skills on how to conserve water and soil, and I hope to get high crop yields in this coming season,” he says.

A coffee farmer finds hope again

The story is similar for Majema Francis, a 56-year-old father of 10 from the Mt. Elgon landscape. For him, healthy soil is inseparable from the future of his coffee garden—and the wellbeing of his family.

Last year, Francis harvested 10 bags of coffee and sold it at UGX 15,000 per kilogram. But after seeing erosion, landslides and declining soil fertility on his land, he feared the next harvest would be smaller.

“Before this training, I had lost hope. But with the knowledge and skills I have gained from my garden, I am hopeful that my land will yield better coffee because I am going to practice soil and water conservation,” he says.

Because the training was conducted at the beginning of the farming season, Francis can put what he has learned into practice immediately. Conservation, in his case, is no longer something separate from farming. It is part of protecting the crop that sustains his family’s livelihood.

From individual farms to a collective effort

One of the most promising aspects of the training is what happens after the demonstrations end. Farmers in participating communities have formed parish groups and committed themselves to working together to restore and protect their landscape.

That collective approach is critical in Mt. Elgon. Rainwater does not stop at the edge of one farm, and erosion on one hillside can affect land and livelihoods further downhill. Protecting soil and water therefore requires more than individual effort.

The farmer groups also create spaces for people to share what they have learned, encourage one another and continue taking action. A farmer who masters a conservation practice can demonstrate it to a neighbour; a group can share experiences; and extension workers can continue providing technical guidance to other farmers.

In this way, one training session can become much more than a one-day activity. It can become the beginning of a chain of learning and action that reaches beyond the people who were physically present.

Restoring the land, protecting livelihoods

The Mt. Elgon landscape supports forests, wetlands, rivers, farms and biodiversity, while providing livelihoods for communities that depend heavily on its natural resources. Yet degradation, soil erosion and climate-related pressures continue to threaten both the environment and agricultural production.

The response, therefore, cannot be about conservation alone. It must also make sense for the farmer who needs food today, income tomorrow and productive land for the next generation.

That is the thinking behind the Mt. Elgon Project’s work to build community capacity for sustainable landscape management while supporting agricultural livelihoods and value chains for coffee and staple crops such as maize, beans, bananas and Irish potatoes.

The trained farmers will also receive Napier grass to reinforce the soil and water conservation measures introduced during the training, according to Mutenyo.

For farmers such as David and Francis, these may look like small steps. But on a hillside where every heavy rainfall can carry away part of a farmer’s future, a contour line, a protected piece of soil or a lesson shared with a neighbour can make a lasting impact.

The journey ahead is still long. Restoring a degraded landscape does not happen overnight. But when conservation knowledge moves from a demonstration field into the hands of farmers—and from individual farmers into organised communities, it becomes action.

And for Mt. Elgon, that action is about more than saving soil. It is about keeping farms productive, families secure and the landscape capable of supporting generations to come.

The Promoting Integrated Landscape Management Approach for Conservation of the Mount Elgon Ecosystem in Eastern Uganda Project is a Government of Uganda initiative funded by the Global Environment Facility (GEF) through UN Environment and implemented by the National Environment Management Authority (NEMA) in collaboration with national, district and community-level partners.

The project is being implemented across 38 sub-counties in nine Mt. Elgon districts: Mbale, Manafwa, Bududa, Sironko, Bulambuli, Namisindwa, Kapchorwa, Kween and Bukwo. It seeks to strengthen integrated landscape management, sustainable agricultural production, biodiversity conservation, livelihoods and climate resilience.