Sustainable agriculture with an emphasis on awareness of health and business will soon come to life in Uganda with the help of an ISU program.

The program, which helps developing countries to deal with issues of hunger, education and health, will focus on helping the African nation, said Robert Mazur, associate professor of sociology and director of the Sustainable Rural Livelihoods program.

The program, created in 2003, has selected Uganda as its first recipient for aid, Mazur said.

Eric Abbott, professor of journalism and communication and member of the program’s management team, said Uganda is a good choice.

“One of the reasons we selected Uganda is that it is on the list of countries that has problems with nutrition and education,” Abbot said. “The second factor you look at is HIV. About 20 percent of the population has [HIV]. I think it’s a great opportunity on the humanitarian side.”

Abbott said he has witnessed the extent of the problems in the country when he was in Uganda 10 years ago as coordinator for Iowa State’s Technology and Social Change program and again in January when he returned with the Sustainable Rural Livelihoods team, which had met with local government and Makerere University in Uganda to organize the program.

Mazur was also in Uganda for the initial planning. He said the reception from the people there was positive.

“Mostly, the agenda was to focus on, ‘How can we make this happen?’ We’re not arrogant. We’re not saying we have all the answers. We have technology, but we also have a respect for the traditional way of doing things,” Mazur said.

Mazur said in the past, other programs have focused on only agriculture when helping struggling nations.

“We’ve had decades where we’ve just been trying to promote agricultural technology. The solution is in the social sciences, health and business,” Mazur said.

Part of this diverse approach is getting farmers to collaborate with their peers, Mazur said. Encouraging communication among the local government, university and farmers would be the best way to impart Sustainable Rural Livelihood ideas because people would digest the program’s message easier if it came from their peers, he said.

Abbott said helping farmers with AIDS will be another challenge. He said the Sustainable Rural Livelihood program would not be providing medicine because there are other groups available for that, but said it would instead help farmers with the everyday realities of living with the disease.

Mazur said the program can help farmers by diversifying the crops planted, improving storage facilities and increasing crops value by adding a processing component. The program would also identify opportunities for small businesses, he said.

In addition, the program will provide opportunities for faculty members to showcase their experience, Abbott said.

He said there will also be graduate and undergraduate study opportunities.

At this time, only graduate studies are available, but the anonymous donors whose gift made the program possible emphasized they wanted the program to include undergraduate students in the near future, Mazur said.

Mazur said the program will benefit Iowa State in a number of other ways, including a stronger international program, research and teaching.

“We’ll be very creative in terms of identifying other opportunities,” Mazur said.