Friendly Side Chains

Friendly Side Chains (FSC), short for fair, sustainable and gender friendly value chains. Within FSC, partners will develop a new side income stream for smallholder farming families in Uganda, aiming to increase their income and climate resilience while promoting agroforestry. The crop of focus is oysternuts. A crop with untapped potential, due to its lack of commercial value and market. Oysternuts are climate-resistant plants that can be grown in agroforests without the need for additional resources.

The plan is to create a value chain for oysternuts, involving sourcing from the same smallholder farmers as we source young jackfruit from and processing close to the source. To improve the economic situation of the farming families by offering them a new side income stream next to young jackfruit and vanilla/coffee etc. At the same time, partners plan to develop a program to improve the working conditions for farmers with a specific focus on the position of women in the farming household (as a key driver to improving the living standard of the entire family). Aim is to improve the social-economic situation of workers in the factory by providing an employment position that is less seasonal and thus more financially secure, at a safe, healthy, equal and fair workplace. The partners especially focus on women, by creating a safe, equal and healthy environment, including access to Sexual and Reproductive Health and Rights (SRHR) and with no space for gender-discrimination and gender-based violence.