Your cart is currently empty!
Tag: Climate Change
From Baseline to Design Interventions: UPCHAIN Enters Research Phase II
UPCHAIN has entered phase two. A workshop for transitioning from problem identification and baseline studies (phase 1) to experimentation and design intervention (phase 2) has ended today at Adjumani Multipurpose Training Centre in Adjumani town, West Nile, northern Uganda.
Participants pose for a group photo at Adjumani Multipurpose Training Centre (Photo by Oscar Ogwang)
Launched in May 2022 at Gulu University, the UPCHAIN project seeks to develop innovative ways to produce and use briquettes (green charcoal) from agricultural residues as a sustainable source of energy, in response to climate change through reduced reliance on wood fuel and black charcoal for cooking.
Although UPCHAIN is anchored on Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 13, which is about Climate Action, its activities have a potentially big influence on the majority of the SDGs among the communities in northern Uganda where it is being implemented.
The Adjumani workshop, held from November 12 to 15, 2023, brought together all students supported by UPCHAIN (6 PhD and 10 MA), as well as the project implementers from Uganda and Denmark, to review the progress of the project in the first phase and strategise for the next phase.
Prof. Dirckinck-Holmfeld (l), the Principal Investigator (PI), and Dr. Geoffrey Tabo facilitate a session
The PhD and Masters students, together with their supervisors, are conducting research in different aspects of green charcoal, ranging from production (including making machines) to marketability and adoption in households.
An estimated 40 percent of black charcoal supplied in urban parts of Uganda is from northern Uganda. A recent presidential directive banned the production and sale of charcoal from the region in an effort to stop deforestation. While this is environmentally sound, it creates an energy deficit under the current circumstances in Uganda.
Green charcoal is seen as a sustainable alternative to black charcoal and firewood, with the potential to reduce deforestation and curb climate change.
“A very important finding across the project is that we should not talk about one innovation model for green charcoal but, instead, at least four models have been identified. This came out in the presentation of one of the PhD students, Judith Awacorach,” said Prof. Lone Dirckinck-Holmfeld (Aalborg University), the UPCHAIN Principal Investigator (PI).
L-R: Assoc. Prof. Quentin Gausset, Dr. Nicholas Okello, and Judith Awacorach working on a model
The models are Individual Production (characterized by hands and simple tools and targeting small or informal markets), Self Help Groups (using manual machines for production and targeting the informal market), Small Enterprises (using small motorized machines and producing for informal and formal economy), and Medium Enterprises (big motorised machines targeting the formal economy).
“I really want to congratulate the participants for their hard and detailed work. It provides insights into the complexity of changing practices of something so essential as cooking and innovating for green charcoal. The perspective of UPCHAIN is both to create awareness of climate change mitigation and to come up with inclusive and sustainable solutions to the production, the marketing and the adoption of green charcoal among households, schools as well as governmental and international agencies,” added Prof. Dirckinck-Holmfeld.
Dr. Collins Okello, the Dean of the Faculty of Agriculture, and also the UPCHAIN Co-PI, said the project had taken off “very well”.
“The teams are working together. The students we recruited are already doing their research – some have already reached the level of examination of the dissertation. The production unit has already been fabricated – green charcoal [briquettes] machines for Pabbo [in Amuru Distirct] and Gulu City. An MOU has already been signed with the district of Amuru and land has been secured. We are now engaging the youth who will run the project. We have done capacity development with a number of trainings for the students in data collection, proposal writing, and reporting. Ethical clearance has been done. Our partnership with Denmark is very good and we are doing joint supervision of the students. So, we are doing well,” said Dr. Okello.
L-R: Prof. Charles Okumu, Dr. Collins Okello and Dr. Agatha Alidri having a conversation
While opening the workshop, Ben Anyama, the LCV Chairman for Adjumani District, said it was necessary to mobilise communities to adopt green charcoal use especially to curtail deforestation.
“If we could mobilise and sensitise them I think the issue of charcoal burning in the future will not be there. It will be addressed by UPCHAIN. Beginning something is not easy. I am very sure UPCHAIN is going to succeed – actually, it has succeeded already,” said Anyama.
He pledged his continued support for the project not only in Adjumani District but in northern Uganda in general.
Anyama addresses workshop participants
“I want to assure you that as the district Chair, I am going to make sure we continue supporting this programme in the whole region. I am going to bring in our colleagues; the RDCs [Resident District Commissioners, CAOs [Chief Administrative Officers [CAOs] and District Environmental Officers,” he said.
Dr. Agatha Alidri, the UPCHAIN Coordinator said that the multidisciplinary nature of the project makes it complex, but the longer they are taking on the research, the more they are understanding the project.
“This is the first multidisciplinary project at Gulu University – from sciences to arts – everyone is here. In the beginning, it was difficult to know how we would work together. But we have made good strides. We are now scaling up. The machines are ready. Pabbo [Amuru District] gave us land] and that shows the zeal of the community in this project. This is also a sign that their confidence in Gulu University has grown,” said Dr. Alidri.
Groups comprised participants from different disciplines
Assoc. Prof. Quentin Gausset from the University of Copenhagen, a member of the UPCHAIN Executive Committee, urged his fellow researchers to embrace action research by its standards.
“We are not just studying people. We are studying with the people. How many of you are using green charcoal in your homes? If we are not using it then how do we expect others to use it?” He challenged them.
Report and Photos by William Odinga
Amuru District Gives Land to Gulu University for UPCHAIN Research Project
Gulu University (GU) has received land from the Amuru District Local Government to boost its efforts in the research, production, and promotion of charcoal from agricultural waste, also known as green charcoal.
On October 13, 2023, the LCV Chairman, Michael Lakony, handed to the university close to an acre of land in Pabbo Town, with the promise to donate more land if required for the same purpose.
Gulu University’s Dr. Collins Okello (l), shares a copy of the MoU with Mr. Lakony
The land will be used to set up a facility where members of the community can learn about green charcoal and how to produce and use it.
Through the UPCHAIN project, GU is researching and promoting the adoption of briquettes produced from agricultural waste as an alternative to black charcoal and firewood.
This research is expected to contribute to stopping deforestation (in response to environmental degradation and Climate Change), reducing smoke-induced health issues as well as creating local employment.
Amuru CAO Mr. Otai (l), Pabbo Mayor Mr. Camhara (m), and Town Clerk Ms. Adum display a copy of the MoU
Pabbo is among the potential commercial-scale production centres of briquettes identified by the team managing UPCHAIN, especially because it generates a lot of waste from rice, in the form of rice husks.
“We have not seen research that gives tangible outcomes as this project. Most research projects are merely scholarly, but in this one, you are even producing machines, and you will keep modifying them for the betterment of the environment,” said Lakony during the handover ceremony held in the meeting hall of Pabbo Town Council.
Dr. Collins Okello, the UPCHAIN Co-Principal Investigator (PI), who represented the Vice Chancellor, Prof. George Openjuru Ladaah, said environmental degradation had become a major concern for the university especially when northern Uganda became the main producer of charcoal for Uganda’s urban markets. Dr. Okello is also the Dean of the Faculty of Agriculture and Environment.
L-R: Mr. Otai, Mr. Lakony, Dr. Agatha Alidri, Dr. Okello and Prof. Charles Okumu holding a conversation beside the land
Stressing the importance of the UPCHAIN initiative to the Amuru community, the Amuru District Chief Administrative Officer (CAO), Charles Otai, said: “We are responsible for our destiny. The district will play its part, and the town council (of Pabbo) will play its part, but we expect you [GU] to take the lead. And where you need any support from us we are more than willing to work with you. The district council, as a planning authority, when it takes a decision, it is in the interest of the community, and the decision we are making now is to solve the issue of environmental degradation.”
Amuru District leaders and leaders of UPCHAIN pose for a photo after inspecting the land
The function was attended by several local government leaders, including the Mayor of Pabbo Town, Richard Camhara, and several leaders of the UPCHAIN project, including the Project Coordinator, Dr. Agatha Alidri, and the Secretary of the UPCHAIN Advisory Board, Prof. Charles Nelson Okumu. Both Camhara and Lakony are members of the advisory board.