AMURU– Members of Elegu Women Cross Border Traders’ Cooperative in Amuru district now expects to earn more income following the installation of the rice huller worth Shs 333 million.
A rice huller or rice husker is an agricultural machine used to automate the process of removing the chaff of grains of rice.
The particular rice huller was recently installed for the women to use courtesy of World Bank-funded Agriculture Cluster Development Project [ACDP] in partnership with Amuru District Local Government.
However, members of the cooperative contributed 33 percent of the total cost of the installation of the facility located at Elegu Border Post in Atiak Sub-county, Amuru district.
Margret Auma, the chairperson of the cooperative, said the installed rice huller will now entice members to embark on massive rice production and processing.
“Since the machine is already with us and we have ready market both here and South Sudan, there is no doubt that our lives will change for better,’’ she said.
Auma said the cooperative belongs to women who are single mothers, with some living with HIV/ AIDs.
She said the rice huller threshes 1,000, kilo of rice per hour. “At the moment, we are mobilising women to start massive rice growing. We want them to make the use of the machine by adding value,” she said.
The Amuru district commercial officer, Samuel Kidega said the rice huller will boost incomes of women who trade at Elegu border post.
He added: “We hope they will consider adding value so that they become the biggest suppliers of rice in the region.”
Betty Naisanga, a member of the cooperative, said she have three acre of rice this season alone and she plans to have 10 acres next season as she aims to take advantage of the installed rice huller.
Jalia Nagudi, a restaurant owner and member of the women’s cooperative, said she would join rice growing next season. “I have a restaurant here at the border [Elegu] but given that the cooperative now has a rice huller I am considering joining rice growing as well,’’ she said.
Elegu Women Cross Border Traders’ Cooperative has seen the number of members grow from 47 in 2016 to the current 760. The cooperative was formed to help members eradicate household poverty.
https://thecooperator.news/butaleja-rice-farmers-ask-govt-to-subsidise-prices-of-machinery/
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