Our rangeland–water resilience model

Three interventions delivered together for agro-pastoral communities: restore the rangeland, harvest the water, and help herders grow and conserve better pasture. We first delivered the full model across nine cattle-corridor districts under the EU-funded MOBIP-RAWM project, with our partner AGRENES.

Why it matters

Rangelands cover about 44% of Uganda and carry more than 90% of its ruminants. Overgrazing, long droughts and erratic rain leave pasture thin and water points dry, so herds lose condition and herders trek further, raising the risk of conflict over grazing and water. In Karamoja, rainfall averages only about 650 mm a year.

The three parts

• Rangeland restoration: reseeding degraded land with drought-tolerant grasses and legumes such as Chloris gayana and Centrosema, planting multipurpose trees, and, in our Karamoja design, rotational grazing plans co-designed with herders
• Small-scale water harvesting: household water facilities and valley dams sited with farmers and local government, with training on managing them through the dry season
• Climate-smart pasture and fodder: training in pasture establishment and in hay and silage conservation, delivered through farmer field schools and backed by forage guides translated into local languages

Results from MOBIP-RAWM (2019–2022)

• 483 acres of new drought-tolerant pasture on 37 beef farms, about 13 acres per farm
• 405 acres of degraded rangeland rehabilitated on 46 farms
• About 3,534 tonnes of fresh biomass (1,767 tonnes of dry matter) produced from the new and restored pastures
• 18 water facilities of 30,000 litres each, 540,000 litres of storage in all, 10 of them for female-headed households
• 400,000 multipurpose agroforestry seedlings distributed

Where we have used it

Technical lead: Dr Ssemwanga Mohammed, AGRENES.