farmers need information

Summary of Plant Clinic activities from the different centers.

Market places	District	No of farmers	Cases reported for major crops
Mpanga	Bundibugyo	167	Cocoa,coffee,banana.beans and cassava
Bubandi	Bundibugyo	103	Cocoa,coffee,banana.beans.cassava,
Kisinga	Kasese	219	Cotton, maize,banana,cassava,coffee,egg plants,potatoes,G-nuts,beans,cabbages
Kiburara	Kasese	91	Cotton, maize,banana,cassava,coffee,egg plants,potatoes,G-nuts,beans,cabbages,oranges and mangoes
Mpondwe	Kasese	324	Cotton, maize,banana,cassava,coffee,egg plants,potatoes,G-nuts,beans,cabbages
Kinyabisiki	Kasese	61	Cotton, maize,banana,cassava,coffee,egg plants,potatoes,G-nuts,beans,cabbages
Kajambala	Bundibugyo	50	maize,banana,cassava,coffee,egg plants,G-nuts,beans,cabbages

          Summary of cases reported to the Plant Clinic as per crop

Crop	Major problem	Number of Cases reported	Number of farmers
			Male	Female
Coffee	Bacteria and pests leads to Leaf spots, holes in branches, drying of leaves,browm patches	167	69	98
Maize	Maize stock,trige weed problem, stunted growth, yellowing	526	185	341
Beans	Stunted growth and yellowing		124	377
Mangoes	Rush, premature dropping	76	67	09
Oranges	Yellowing and drying of the fruits before the ripe period, black spots,	85	61	24
Cocoa	Premature fruits, pests attack	300	121	179
Cotton	Stunted growth, yellowing of leaves	190	124	66
Bananas	BBX leads to yellowing,	446	201	245
G-nuts	Stunted growth, yellowing	216	50	166
Egg Plants	Pests attack on the plants, leaf yellowing	42	12	30
Potatoes	Attack by warms	10	01	09
Cassava	Cassava mosaic, yellowing	344	42	302
Cabbages	Attack by warms and stunted growth	40	11	39
Tomatoes	Bacterial wilt leading to yellowing and fruits falling down, rush	101	57	44
onions	Wilting of the leaves from the top.	23	13	10
Totals number of cases		2266

reading inspire children in choosing their career

RIC-NET joined the rest of the members of Uganda community Libraries Association in celebrating the Book Week from the 15^th to 20^th October. The event took place at Busongora Rural community library located in Kasese District. This library serves both the farmers in the community as well as the students and other community members.

The main objectives was to create understanding on the value of reading to the pupils and students in Kasese, to create a linkage between the tradition teaching method with the modern, To derive a picture of the type of library required by the users- community, pupils and students. The participating schools included; Kasese Secondary, Kasese High, Kasese Moslem, Light of Hope Secondary[between S1-S3], Kasese Primary, Base camp Primary, Mother care and Rock primary[pupils between P.3-P6] other were RICNET, RWECO and BRIC staffs, DIO, DEO, Secretary for education and sports Kasese district local government represented by Mr.Tsembere Venesio the area district councilor.

The activities included; Story telling by the elders to students and pupils. Art and drawing competition, Debate, Book reading and Quiz competitions among the participating schools involving the secondary and the primary learners.

During the silent reading and later sharing of the books, the pupils the participant realized that reading is important because; there is an increase in knowledge and awareness, pupils learn good behaviors, increase their ability to speak and write, has increased their ability to speak in public and their views heard, increase their literacy rate, get meaningful advice from certain books, able to understand program from the government and their rights as children of Uganda.

They also realized community issues that need actions from the community and their leaders are easily shared and understand especially; better farming methods, community literacy programs, family planning methods should be implemented to reduce on population explosion. Laws, ordninaces and by-laws should be put in place to regulate on drug abuse, children rights should be respected. One pupils from Mother Care Preparatory School Degaulle in P.4 amused the house when he mentioned that “the government is to blame for reduce the cost of Alcohol especially those that cost as less 500; Buveera”. He was supported by another Komukebya Sharon from Base camp Primary who said that these drugs are easily accessible everywhere in the villages. These views were later accepted and the District councilor accepted to table them in the council

The event also draw participants to an understand between formal and informal education. In informal education, the teachers were mainly uncles, Anti and grandparents where knowledge was passed in form of proverbs, stories, sayings, songs that were meant to increase behavior change,sence of belonging to the community, hard work and good character among the young ones as well as increasing the sense of belonging to the community. The fire place was the class room. In the formal education, teacher and schools have replaced the role of elders to pass knowledge. The story telling that formed part of this event draw the pupils the life back with the grandparents. Mr. Kyaminyawande Augustine an elder from the community helped the pupils to understand that informal education had value and those values should be taken even today.

peace building practices to be rolled in primary schools

As members of the Civil gathered to discuss the implication of the civil war in the northern [LRA war] and Rwenzori region [ADF war] of Uganda toward education. They resolved to the introduction of peace building lesson among the primary pupils in the affected regions.

This was realized during the five [5] days training on Conflict transformation and peace building for peace education in Northern Uganda at farm view hotel, Lira from September 9^th- 15^th                . The training was attended by members from civil society organization working in the sector of education with support from ELEC Uganda. Also those who attended were the District Education officers of Lira, Dokolo, and Albetong.

During the training the participants realized has left children traumatized, lacking morals, take actions in their hands, trained to kill and take every situation as part of the enemy. The war created hatred among the communities and families. This has created indiscipline in the schools. E.g. the Deo Lira claimed25yrs, over 1 million people leaving in camps, children have grown in camps. The war has made children behave like rebels in schools. Thus participants realized that peace would mean the following in schools and among the learners.

Therefore a peaceful environment in school and among the children can help in bring the old glory in primary schools in the northern and Rwenzori region. Better results can be realized and these children shall be able to compete favorably with other learners from other region which had remained peaceful for the past 26 years. It is a call to all stakeholders to create a reconciliation approach in the communities and schools. New innovative approach to teaching that will have a peace component in the lesson development should be adopted in the schools. There is need to have a peaceful school environment. Argued all the participants to promote the culture of peace in education and communities where we come from and develop a work plan to make a follow-up of what we shall discus.