With support from AgDevCo and the Smallholder Development Unit, the Gulu Agricultural Development Company (GADC) started the process of agricultural transformation in Northern Uganda. It is empowering returning subsistence farmers and developing their agricultural, financial and business skills while supporting women’s agency and independence. It is connecting fields to markets and producers to exporters. And it is introducing modern technology, adapted to achieve maximum impact in the region for northern Ugandan farmers to flourish.

The Gulu Agricultural Development Company (GADC) in northern Uganda works with 20,000 smallholder farmers to produce organic cotton. Production is often challenged by the large numbers of pests which attack the crop. In 2020, the AgDevCo agriculture team trained staff at GADC to make a cheap spray from maize and yeast that attracts ‘natural enemies’ that prey on the cotton pests. When GADC trained their suppliers to use this organic method, it was a great success. There were fewer pests on the sprayed cotton and yields increased by up to 65%.

AgDevCo also tackles food security by increasing income for hundreds of thousands of people every year. When people have more money, they buy more and better food. AgDevCo also makes a direct contribution by investing in companies that supply locally produced nutritious foods and improving equal access for the poor, especially vulnerable women