Land Clearing

The Farm only utilizes half of its land, as you can see from the map to the right. Though we currently farm 65 acres of land, we have just as much land sitting as unproductive ‘bush.‘

This year, with the help of generous financial gifts, we have cleared and leveled 15-acres of farm land. All of this land is cleared by hand. There are three phases to land clearing in the middle of Uganda. The first phase is bush whacking: Men cut down the thick underbrush with pangas (machetes), pile it, and often burn it. The second phase is tree selection: We often allow the nice straight hardwoods to stand; however, we uproot the trash trees. This is done by digging around the tree and using an axe to cut it down. When the trees have fallen, we hire a chainsaw to cut the trees into firewood or timber. The firewood is often sold to New Hope’s family groups for cooking, and the timber often goes to New Hope’s timber mill. Once the new field is cleared of fallen trees, we begin the third and final phase: Cleaning and leveling the field of ant and termite hills so that our tractor can plough and plant.

The total cost to clear an acre of land is roughly around $300 from start to finish. We do receive some of that back through firewood and timber sales. Our goal is to clear 60 acres and be in full production by the middle of 2013.