Welcome to Seeds for Development
Seeds for Development is a small charity supporting the poorest people in Uganda. Our mission is to lift farmers out of poverty and support self-sustainability by providing risk free loans, in the form of agricultural inputs such as seed directly to the farmers.
It started in 2007 with an idea to help one family get out of grinding poverty. Today, we support more than 700 farming families (around 7,000 people), working with them to move towards a happier and more hopeful life where they eat regular meals, send their children to school, build new and safer homes and even set up businesses.
We advance funds to farmers groups to buy seeds, tools and even wellington boots! They pay this back at the end of the season, meaning we can recycle the money the help more people. A bit like micro-finance without money, interest or risk!
We listen to, and learn from, the farmers ensuring that we support them with what they need and not what we think they should have.
The groups are carefully selected to ensure they are honest, hardworking and absolutely passionate about kicking poverty out of their lives, just as we are passionate about helping them.
100% of donations go to the farmers. Seeds are not expensive, so our funds go a long way. For example, £35 will pay for bean seeds to cover one acre – the farmer can make over £300 from that acre of beans.
After just one season the transformation is amazing for both the children and the land!
What would you do with 11,200,000 shillings?
We used it to advance seeds to grow 28,000 coffee seedlings! Yes - 28,000! In our money it is around £2,800 and we are very excited about this. The farmers in the north of the country are embarking on a project to become some of the first commercial coffee farmers in the region. 286 of them to be exact. They are busy preparing the land to plant the seedlings next March. Don't hold your breath for the first cup of coffee though! It takes 3 years for the seedlings to grow into strong trees and produce the beans!
200 farmers in the south, who are already growing coffee, have also come together to collaborate in producing and selling their coffee.
The Excellent Coffee Company was born at 11.11am on 11/11/11 and we are very very proud to support them.
