Archive for category: Farmers

SOROTI: Fruit farmers in Teso sub-region are bemoaning insufficient demand for fruits from Soroti Fruit Factory which has made them that has left them stranded with surplus produce and huge losses.

In a series of interviews with theCooperator, several farmers from soroti and the neighboring districts said they had severally been turned away by the factory claiming it already had sufficient supply, dashing their hopes and leaving them stuck with perishable produce.

“I was told to come back with my fruits three times by the factory management who reasoned that they had bought enough fruits the previous day,” Felix Tukei the chairperson Apungurei Fruit farmers SACCO in Bukedea district, recalls.

Tukei says that as a result, he was only able to sell a small portion of the rejected fruits to produce dealers in Kenya, but the majority of it ended up rotting.

Lilian Ikilai, a pineapple farmer in Kalaki, Pallisa district, narrates a similar experience. Ikilia told theCooperator that she has about 700 trees of ripened citrus in her farm, but the factory in Soroti cannot afford to buy it, leaving her at the mercy of middlemen from Kampala, Kenya and South Sudan, who she says are exploitative. “Their bags are always thrice the size of our own bags here, and they pay only shs. 50,000 per bag,” she says.

If the status quo continues, Tukei is worried that he and other farmers in Teso may not be able to improve their household incomes and transform their livelihoods, as anticipated at the launch of Soroti Fruit Factory last year.

Background

In the recent past, Teso sub-region has been striving to distinguish itself as a fruit-farming community. Anticipating the launch of the fruit factory, the area, with significant government support, scaled up fruit growing, such by the time the factory was launched in April last year, Teso sub-region had about 8million fruit trees.

When Soroti Fruit Factory was eventually launched, it was expected to have a production capacity of 96metric tons of fruit per day, and 120,0000 metric tons annually, crushing oranges, mangoes and citrus fruits into ready-to-drink concentrate juice for the market here and abroad.

At its commissioning, President Museveni directed that smallholder farmers in the area be given priority to supply fruits to the factory so that they could improve their household incomes.

Low Capacity?

Since its launch, however, the factory has not been able to operate at full capacity. A source from the factory’s management who preferred to speak anonymously told theCooperator that the factory is only able to process 6 tons per hour, 48 per day (while operating one shift of 8-hours a day), meaning that at most, the factory can only process slightly in excess of 17,520 tons of fruit annually.

As a result, the factory has decided to limit the purchase of its fruits to farmer groups and associations, instead of individual smallholder farmers. “The factory is not able to absorb all the fruits produced in a season from every individual farmer,” says Douglas Ndawula Kakyukyu, the Chief Executive Officer at Soroti Fruit Factory.

But neither is the factory able to exhaust the fruits produced by registered farmer groups. So far, the factory has registered 63 groups from 35 districts in Eastern Uganda. Of these, Teso Tropical Fruit Cooperative Union, the biggest farmers’ union in the region which also owns 20% shares in the factory accounts for 59 primary societies, but the factory is only able to buy fruits from only 27, per season.

“Every two months, we deliver strictly 27 lorry loads of 10 tons each to the factory from our Union. This is not even half of what farmers produce,” says Joram Opio, the chairperson of farmers at Teso Tropical Fruit Cooperative Union.

Now, under their umbrella Teso Fruit farmers, the farmers are urging the government to consider increasing the production capacity of Soroti Fruit Factory so as to buy all their produce.

“We were convinced to invest in citrus fruit farming by the government claiming that the factory will be the ultimate innovation to the market crisis, but it all looks messy now,” Alex Opit, a citrus fruit farmer from Serere district says.

Opit says that due to inconsistency in weather patterns, some of these farmers have had to heavily invest in irrigation schemes so as to be able to harvest quality yields in large quantities.

“We’re now no longer sure whether all these investments were necessary, or whether we shall recover the costs,” Tukei says.

But Opio says despite the existing frustrations, the factory has done more good than harm for the local communities and says the only concern is its production capacity. One way of expanding the factory capacity, Opio says, is by inviting more investors to invest in the project.

The factory is presently owned 80% by the government of Uganda through Uganda Development Corporation, and 20% by the Teso Tropical Fruit Cooperative Union. “Let the powers that be invite more investors into the project,” Opio says.

When contacted, Michael Werikhe, the state minister for trade, without divulging details, told our reporter that the government is aware of the situation at Soroti Fruit Factory, and is working at addressing the farmers’ concerns.

He said that by the end of this year, the factory, in addition to mangoes, oranges, and citrus fruits, will start processing watermelons, pineapples, and passion fruits.

Besides fruit growing, fish farming, cattle, and poultry keeping are the other economic activities practiced by the people of Teso Sub-region.

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Youth in Sembabule District have embarked on a value-addition campaign to compensate for the decline in the price of milk, the main income earner for most cattle farmers in the district.

Like in many other milk-producing parts of the country, since mid-last year, milk prices in the district have fallen from a peak of shs.800 per-liter to as low as shs.300, with other farmers struggling to get ready buyers entirely.

Now, in a bid to compensate for lost incomes, youths in the sub-counties of Kawanda and Rugushulu under their umbrella Sembabule Yoghurt, Ghee Youth Network have chosen to add value to the milk and market its by-products instead, specially zeroing in on Yoghurt and Cheese production.

“We realized that many farmers in this area were competing for a small market of milk, and when there is bulky produce during the rainy season, the prices drastically fall, gravely affecting the livelihoods of many farmers. And every year, the cycle repeats itself. So we have decided to think outside the box, to bring to the market other bi-products that can provide alternative income,” says Joseph Ssali, the Network’s chairperson.

Background

In 2018, the Network approached Sembabule District Farmers Association SEDFA for support, after which the latter, impressed by the former’s ambition and drive, agreed to support them.

Through a partnership with a Swedish development organization- VI Agroforestry, SEDFA offered to train Sembabule Yoghurt, Ghee Youth Network members in cheese and yogurt making and equipped them with a start-up kit comprising of a deep freezer, milk cans, a ghee separator, and saucepans to kick-start the project.

The Network now has seven primary groups spread across the two sub-counties according to Ssali, and with 30 members each, these supply milk on planned schedules, to ensure a constant supply.

The milk is then collected at the group’s work station in Kyabi trading center, where it is converted into yogurt and ghee.

Ssali told theCooperator that the network now produces 300 liters of yogurt per week, with each liter of the finished product being sold at shs.4000. “We have a target of producing at least 1,200 liters of yogurt and 1,000 kilograms of ghee per week. This way, we will have successfully created a reliable alternative income earner for the farmers,” he says.

With their homemade, value-added bi-products, the group currently prides itself in being the first organized local producers and distributors of Yoghurt and Ghee in Sembabule district.

Ssali says they are now looking to building a strong brand of unique probiotic yogurt and ghee products to market beyond Sembabule and the neighboring Gomba districts.

Julius Ssebuliba, the Network’s marketing coordinator says they are considering widening their supply to supermarkets and shops in urban centers of the greater Masaka area, in the hope that such enhanced visibility and market will give them mileage to expand the business.

He says that the network’s primary groups are now forming among themselves a Savings and Credit Cooperative Organization-SACCO, so as to become financially self-sustaining through collective saving.

“The idea is that our members can get involved into other enterprises at the individual household level to avoid overreliance on this project that may cripple its growth,” he says.

Godfrey Bitakalamire, the SEDFA Chief Executive Officer says they are grateful that their investment is bearing fruit. “Most of our farmers are largely dependent on rain-fed agriculture, hence the challenge of price fluctuation. Until we collectively appreciate the challenges we face and invest in solutions prioritizing value addition, our farmers will remain stuck and susceptible to exploitation,” he noted.

Bitakalamire says that although SEDFA’s partnership with the Uganda Diary Cooperation has partly aided farmers’ needs by providing market linkages and providing milk coolers in some parts of the district, they still need more homemade solutions to help the ordinary small scale farmers.

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President Yoweri Museveni has committed shs.100 million as a contribution towards supporting Gulu University Staff Savings and Credit Cooperative Organization (SACC0), urging the lecturers to diversify their sources of income through entrepreneurship.

The president made the pledge while presiding over Gulu University’s 15th graduation, where more than 1,500 students were awarded undergraduate degrees.

At the ceremony held at the University’s main grounds on Saturday, Museveni commended Gulu University staff and management for maintaining peace and tranquility by rejecting strikes at the now 18-year-old institution of higher learning.

The President reiterated his call to Universities to prioritize science programs that advance innovative solutions to society’s needs while encouraging job-creating entrepreneurship. “All human needs fall in the four sectors of agriculture, industry, services, and ICT. Students should be trained in these four sectors to address the needs of society,” Museveni urged.

In his remarks, Gulu University Vice-Chancellor Gorge Laadaj Openjuru asked for more government support in the area of scientific research, noting that students graduating in agricultural science are doing particularly well because of the practical knowledge they have acquired while at the University.

He commended the President’s commitment to improving the welfare of teaching staff across the country, arguing that it is only a contented staff that can produce resourceful graduates.

In the recent past, Mr. Museveni has consistently argued that his government cannot meet the salary demands of all public sector workers, and has instead urged them to form professional savings groups that the government would support to afford them affordable credit to diversify their incomes.

Last year, the president announced that the same approach would be extended to tertiary-skilled labor groups (he identified 16 of them) like carpenters, tailors, taxi-operators among others, and has now announced that a shs.100billion fund would be set aside to cater for them.

Critics have however argued that despite the President’s good intentions, these constant freebies to mushrooming SACCOs only serve to undermine the development of the cooperative movement in the country, with many youth groups forming SACCOs specifically targeting the president’s money, only to close as soon as they were started.

In 2016 for example, theObserver newspaper reported that Museveni had given out shs.100million and 8 car-washing pumps to ‘Mulago Car Washers’ SACCO’, which investigations found, did not exist until the day preceding the President’s visit.

Andrew Kyepa, the training and programs development manager at Uganda Cooperative Societies Cooperative Union (UCSCU) contends that instead of throwing money into SACCOs which he argues kills the cooperative spirit of self-help and independence, the government should promote an enabling environment for cooperatives to thrive.

Paul Omach, a professor of political science and the Head of Department of Political Science at Makerere University agrees with Kyepa that although there is eminent government realization that cooperatives are “good,” a majority of the cooperatives that the President is trying to promote are not producer cooperatives, but only saving cooperatives. “And where are they getting the money to save; from donations by the president! That’s not how you grow cooperatives,” he says.

Omach insists that people’s livelihoods can only be improved through production. “You don’t improve people’s livelihood just by saying save money, you must have a productive economy. It’s after you have produced that you save,” he says. He warned that privileging politicking ahead of serious productive activities puts the country on a bad development trajectory.

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BUSHENYI: Residents of Bushenyi District in Western Uganda have pledged to ensure that their local leaders are more accountable, by forming a pressure group designed to scrutinize Local Government performance at all levels.

The pressure group fashionably named “Make Bushenyi Great Again” (MBUGA) was announced at a press conference held at Premier Hotel in Bushenyi town on Tuesday.

Apollo Kakonge, one of the leaders of the pressure group and a veteran civil society activist in the area told theCooperator that the pressure group’s idea was first mooted in February 2017, and has since gained immense traction among local residents after seeing some of its members tirelessly pushing local government authorities to deliver on the social service needs of the community, from upgrading community access roads to significantly reducing teacher absenteeism rates in the District’s public schools, among others.

Mr. Kakonge noted that the pressure group is voluntary, and only draws its support from the local community. “We don’t get aid or grant from anyone. We only collect any needed logistical support from amongst ourselves and the community, many of whom are joining our cause. Ours is a local solution to local problems – we don’t want a solution from outside,” he says.

MBUGA’s chairperson Pison Mugizi told theCooperator that the pressure group is committed to making Bushenyi the model district it used to be; “And one of the surest ways of doing so is ensuring that we have an accountable leadership,” he said.

He said MBUGA would target issues like land grabbing, environmental destruction, corruption, electoral justice, and the quality of health services in the district, among others.

Mugizi noted that the approaching election season was an opportunity for citizens to appraise the current set of leaders against their manifesto commitments, and called upon residents of Bushenyi, in particular, to use the ballot to replace bad, corrupt, and ineffective leaders with good, decent and transformative leaders.

“We should not allow deception to replace the effective implementation of sound economic and social policies. As MBUGA, we call upon each one of us to take the coming elections seriously and insist on electing decent politicians,” rallied Mugizi.

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