KOLE, May 9, 2024 – Alito Joint Farmers Multipurpose Cooperative Society Limited in Kole district has celebrated 25 years of existence.
Started in 1998 with only five founder members, the cooperative now has more than 16,000 registered members, with a good number specialising in oil seed multiplication.
The cooperative mainly grows oil seeds such as sunflower, soybeans, maize, and simsim which they bulk for easy access to the market and better prices, but also grow staple foodstuffs such as maize, cassava, pigeon pea, and others.
Tom Ekuka, a board member of the cooperative attributed their existence for all these years to a common interest, thus agricultural produce, as well as cooperation among the farmers.
“What has kept us together is the business of agriculture and the trust of the farmers. They bring their produce for bulking, and we make sure they are paid promptly. That is why, everywhere in Lango Sub-region you hear people commending our cooperative for the quality soybean seeds we produce,” said Ebuka.
He said specialised production of quality seeds have made them famous and strong in the local market. “We have particular farmers who concentrate on multiplying particular seeds, so in this, we emphasise quality,” he said.
According to Isaac Okello, a project officer in the cooperative, they target to train farmers, produce quality seeds, and ensure that farmers take farming serious as a business.
“Our objectives are to take farming as a business, ensure that farmers come together and understand the practices that improve their yields, have farmer trainings, and to do bulking and collective marketing. Our farmers have been able to access a number of services. We have also started to attract partners from different parts of the country,” he said, adding that theirs is a farmers-led cooperative.
Okello said that togetherness has played a key role in the development of both the cooperative and farmers in a way that the numbers of farmers have increased and they have easy access to services such as markets.
“We provide solutions to the challenges that farmers face. For instance, it is not always easy for farmers to source for quality seeds especially oil seeds. As a cooperative, we work with development partners like Makerere University which takes a lead in research in the oil seeds like soybeans,” Okello said.
Okello however called upon farmers to embrace good farming practices so that they can have good and quality yields even as they don’t cultivate on small plots due to land scarcity, arising out of an increase in the area population.
“We all understand that right now that productivity has gone low, the number of people in the area is increasing but the size of the land remains the same. You realise that a farmer has to embrace the best practices of farming so that he can be able to get high yields on a small farm.
He added: As a cooperative, our major target is to impact knowledge to the farmers, once the farmer have the knowledge, they are able to produce and source for better markets for their produce.”
During the occasion, the Kole district Woman Member of Parliament, Judith Alyet appreciated the cooperative for striving to live the longer, saying other cooperatives should borrow a leaf for them.
“The growth of this cooperative society is commendable. What were seeing here shows that when you start something, you need sustain it, and learn from others. There are other cooperatives that are still limping, others have closed down simply because the members neither believe in themselves nor trust their leaders. Neither do they work hard or inject in the cooperative some money,” said the MP.
Alyek who doubles as the Lango Parliament Committee Chairperson asked farmers to be organised so that they can benefit from the government support that comes through various programmes.
“We have Government support that can come through the Parish Development Model [PDM], Emyooga. Such government agencies like the Microfinance Support Centre and Uganda Development Bank [UDB] are there to help organised groups financially. So, we only need to get organised, focused, and build a good mindset. If we are not serious, we cannot get any government support,” Alyek asked.
However, she appealed to government to offer more support to the farmer groups producing oil seeds.
“I am requesting the government to come in and give more support for value addition and train the farmers on packaging, post-harvest management, among others so that the famers can be able to get good money,” she said.
Alito Joint Farmers Multipurpose Cooperative Society Limited serves farmers across Lango Sub-region and parts of Acholi sub-region, all in Northern Uganda.
https://thecooperator.news/theme-for-2024-international-day-of-cooperatives-revealed/
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