The NIGI project was a 2 year and 8 month long project working in the Refugee and host communities in Northern Uganda (Omugo refugee area) seeking to improve refugee and host community access to, and consumption diverse diets. The project focused on provision of support to households to plant nutrient dense homegardens, and to increase access to vegetables in the area through commercial production. The project also supported capacities in horticulture and increased access to quality seeds.

Household nutrition: Over the course of the project nearly two thousand (1985 households) were supported to set-up home gardens including more than 800 households where a mother or child was recovering from malnutrition. By the second year of the project, these home gardens included up to 12 nutrient dense crops, including crops of quality declared seeds (e.g. iron rich beans), indigenous vegetables and East West Seed (EWS) varieties. In addition to supporting increased production, activities to increase consumption were also carried out including Behaviour change communication activities with 718 households and demonstrations on preparation of nutrient dense foods which were attended by more than four thousand participants. A cadre of nutrition trainers (10) as well as nutrition trainees (3) who were trained by the project will support with project sustainability.

Commercial vegetable production: 237 key farmers in the host community were supported over the course of the project to establish demonstration plots where 4561 farmers attended trainings. Host community farmers who participated in the project produced an average of 105KG of fruits and vegetables, with key farmers (those who received the highest level of support) producing much more.

Below is the downloadable NIGI Final Report.