Deous Mary Ekyaligonza is a lecturer and researcher at Mountains of the Moon University (MMU) in Uganda. She holds a PhD in Natural Resources and Life Sciences from the University of Natural Resources and Life Sciences (BOKU), Vienna with funding from the Austrian Partnership Programme in Higher Education and Research for Development (APPEAR). She completed her PhD studies in April 2023, as part of the APPEAR project Agroecology in the Rwenzori – AER. Mary also holds a Master of Science in Natural Resources Management degree from Mountains of the Moon University (MMU) and a Bachelor of Science in Forestry degree from Makerere University in Uganda. She has over 15 years of experience in teaching, conducting research and consultancies, as well as training communities in projects related to Agroecology and integrated natural resources management. Since her research interest is Agroecology and natural resources management, Mary has supervised several students at PhD, master and bachelor levels with a similar research interest.
The experience built during her PhD studies in Vienna enabled Mary to contribute to the proposal writing of the AER Phase II project and the implementation of the two APPEAR funded projects. In the AER-Phase I project, Mary spearheaded the development of the MSc Agroecology curriculum at MMU, which was accredited by the Uganda National Council for Higher Education in 2020. She then spearheaded the review of the same curriculum under the AER-Phase II project, which was re-accredited in 2025.
She highly attributes her confidence in contributing to these two projects to the experience she obtained from her PhD studies at BOKU and the training in Agroecology and pedagogy that she obtained from the BOKU team during the implementation of the AER-Phase I project. This exposure further built her confidence in engaging in both local and international projects. Currently, Mary is contributing to the implementation of two more international projects. One is titled “Strengthening smallholder farmer resilience to climate change through Joint learning, development and evaluation of contextualised solutions: A case of the Rwenzori and Kigezi highland regions of Uganda (SFR2CC project)” and the other one is titled “Agroecology for Sustainable and Just Groundwater Governance (Careful Irrigation)”. Both projects are funded by the Water and Development Partnership Programme through IHE Delft Institute of Water in the Netherlands. Both projects enhance exchange of knowledge between the South-South and South- North implementing partners. In the SF2CC project, Mary implements several activities including spearheading the development of the Master of Science in Integrated Water Resources Management curriculum at MMU, developing guidelines for the scholarships at MMU and ensures that the students receive their scholarships in time. In both SFR2CC and Careful irrigation projects, Mary developed training manuals and applies them in training farmers in sustainable farming practices amidst the climate change impacts. At a local scale, Mary has contributed to several projects at MMU that she implements in partnership with the NGOs in the country. In addition, she conducts consultancies as an individual and has together with her family members developed their own agroecological farm in the Rwenzori Region.
Additionally, Mary’s scholarship and studies in Austria enriched her with vast professional and personal experiences. The interaction with her PhD supervisors and the lecturers at BOKU enriched her with research and competence-based teaching skills that she is applying in teaching, research supervision and developing programs at MMU. Working with fellow PhD students in Vienna further exposed her to various research problems and technics of addressing them. Moreover, her PhD studies provided her an opportunity to write research articles that were published in peer reviewed high quality journals. Additionally, her PhD studies and involvement in the two APPEAR-funded projects also provided her with an opportunity to further work with her colleagues at BOKU and those who had implemented the “Building Organic Agriculture in Armenia (BOAA)” project in Armenia in writing joint articles, which will be published soon.
Through events organized by OeAD and staying in OeAD houses, Mary built personal relations with people from various countries, which helped her to understand their cultures better. Some of these connections enabled her learn the Austrian systems faster, hence making her life in Vienna pleasant. Through such connection, Mary was able to eat dishes from various cultures and also experience different cultures which she believes have enabled her to work with people of various cultures with ease.
Mary plans to continue teaching at MMU, conducting collaborative research with partners from different countries, and partnering with several institutions including BOKU in development projects that are geared towards community outreaches to improve the farming systems of smallholder farmers. In addition to conducting community outreaches, Mary plans to further develop her family Agroecological farm so that it can serve as a demonstration center of sustainable farming practices among the smallholder farmers, students right from primary schools to higher academic institutions, extension workers and people interested in agritourism. This will further generate income, healthy food and good living environment for her family and also serving as her retirement project.
