Farmers in Mbale have accused the local leaders of failing to provide them with information on the carbon trading deal that the district entered into with the United Nations Development Program.
Mbale partnered with the United Nations Development Program and the Welsh assembly government to implement a two-year carbon trading project aimed at reversing the effects of global warming in the Mt. Elgon region.
The project targets to recruit farmers from six Sub-counties to plant trees in their coffee plantation.
The success of the two-year project will enable Mbale to qualify for UN carbon finance to carryout activities aimed at reversing the effects of global warming.
But the farmers who are to be the beneficiaries of the project say it may be hard for them to embrace it because they have never been consulted on it.
They claim that Mbale district leaders have never bothered to consult them to explain how they will benefit from the project.
Abdu Masaba a coffee farmer from Bubiyangu Sub-county says they were only sensitized by local leaders on global warming. He say it was the first time he was hearing about the Mbale carbon trade project for the first time..
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Masaba wonders how the tree planting project can be implemented without the involvement of the local community.
Ibrahim Wadada a coffee farmer from Mukwarapa village also expressed ignorance about the project.
For Wadada the project can only succeed if it will offer financial assistance to the farmers who plant trees alongside coffee.
Abdu Wesonga Masude another farmer says he only heard about global warming from NAADS officials who visited his village and told them to plant trees in their coffee plantations.
He however says their greatest problem is on purchasing seedlings since they were tol to buy for themselves.
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