A 25 year old mother of two, Stella Aluko has staked her future on ginger.

A member of Atiira Youth Group in Kapelebyong District in north-eastern Uganda, Stella is a member of a 32-strong farmers’ group who are growing ginger commercially on a one acre plot of land in Otapengo village.

The group has been trained in ginger production by Self Help Africa, and has been linked to a national ginger exporter who has guaranteed them with an assured market for their crop. There are 225 young farmers in nine producer groups growing ginger in Kapelebyong.

Stella says that her group collectively earned close to €5,000 from the sale of their surplus ginger, last year. They traded three quarters of their crop and retaining the balance as planting stock for this year.

“Ginger production has given me a source of income. I’ve used money that I’ve earned to buy small livestock, and have also started selling chickens to pay my household costs,” she adds.