USDA Foreign Agricultural Service partnered with USAID/Power Africa, which provided funding, on a project to stimulate productive uses of energy (PUE) among rural agricultural enterprises in Uganda, especially women-owned businesses, and cooperatives. USDA FAS contracted though a competitive process, Green Powered Technology, a U.S. small business, as an on-the-ground to implementing partner. USDA FAS also consulted with technical experts from the USDA Rural Utilities Service in planning the project, which built the capacity of local cooperatives (4 agriculture and 1 electric), producer organizations (members of the Ag COOPs and farmer/ PUE entrepreneurs) to explore and adopt productive uses of energy (PUE) technologies, including access to PUE finance. Solar power, as a climate-smart technology for activities such as irrigation and agricultural processing was explored. The project built on USAID/Uganda’s Feed the Future programming in Kasese District, where three of the cooperatives were located, and USAID/Power Africa’s efforts in Kyegegwa District, the location of two of the cooperatives.
Contact:
Derreck Ekanem, derreck.ekanem@usda.gov
Collaborating agencies, organizations, or institutions:
USDA Foreign Agricultural Service
USDA Rural Development/Rural Utilities Service
U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID)/Power Africa