Farmers in Teso and Lango reaping big from Value Addition Project
SOROTI– Farmers in Teso and Lango sub-regions are testifying to improved livelihood and nutrition wellbeing. This is resulting from value addition equipment that Development Initiative for Northern Uganda [DINU] under Building Resilience to Enhance Food and Nutrition Security, Incomes and Health in Northern Uganda” [BRENU] project that was rolled out two years ago.
DINU which is a government of Uganda integrated program supported by the European Union [EU] and supervised by Office of the Prime Minister [OPM] is implementing a project code-named, Building Resilience to Enhance Food and Nutrition Security, Incomes and Health in Northern Uganda[BRENU] and spearheaded by The International Institute of Tropical Agriculture [IITA].
The three [3] years project worth Euros 5,578,949, targets to benefit more than 51,250 organised smallholder farmers under groups and Savings and Credit Cooperatives [SACCOs] in Apac, Amolatar, Dokolo, Kwania and Otuke in Lango sub region and Amuria and Kapelebyong districts in Teso sub region.
Perez Muchunguzi the Program Manager [DINU], said that, Building Resilience to Enhance Food and Nutrition Security, Incomes and Health in Northern Uganda [BRENU] project aims at enhancing household food and nutrition security, increasing household incomes, improving maternal and child nutrition and health and improving public and reproductive health in northern Uganda.
According to him, the project mainly promotes cultivation of commercial crops that include cassava, rice and soya beans for household income generation and enhancing food security.
The 2017 Uganda Bureau of Statistics [UBOS], states that one in every four households in Lango and Teso consume four or less of the seven recommended food groups in a week, indicating low diet diversity among households, with potential under-nutrition.
Muchunguzi explained that it’s for this reason that DINU has taken a step to promote nutritional crop cultivation to address malnutrition by encouraging farmers to plant food crops such as orange sweet potatoes, groundnuts, vegetables and fruits among others to avert the challenge.
Overall, he said that they have so far given out 71 rice and thrashing soya-beans machines, 85 cassava chipping machines and 85 cassava drying and automatic grain cleaning machines.
According to him, DINU is supporting farmers with this equipment in order to help them add value to their produce, increase their production and reduce on the long treks in search of mills.
“A kilo of husked rice is cheaper than a kilo of milled rice, our local variety, Super rice has both a local market and regional market, within East Africa. However, the challenge has been value addition,” said Muchunguzi.
He noted that with the implementation of value addition equipment, production will go up and the farmers will be able to produce more than we can actually sell out and also reduce on imported rice from the outside.
What Farmers say.
George Okolimo the Chairperson Acowa Farmers’ Cooperative Society in Kapelebyong district one of the benefiting 80 registered Cooperatives confirmed that the equipment has helped them enhance value of commercial commodities thus contributing to sustainable agro-industrialization which is the key pillar of National Development Plan III.
“We planted rice but hardly got market until the machines were introduced which opened a window of opportunities,” he stated.
According to Okolimo, before the pandemic, they exported rice to Kenya at a cost of Shs4200 per kilo compared to the current local market which stands between Shs3200 and Shs3500.
On the other hand, Okolimo said the cooperative is capable of milling 30 tons a week. The machine deselects dust or any other dirt and grades rice in four levels.
Masselina Atianga, one of the members of Acowa Farmers Cooperatives is grateful to DINU for the initiative saying, the thresher machinery innovations in the district has helped to tackle agro processing challenges which has often proved to be a hindering factor to the development of commercial agriculture in the district.
She said, this has changed the mindset of the locals who had earlier given up on commercial agriculture due to lack of machinery innovations to boost productivity and improve on the quality of output.
According to her, their target is to plant about 2,200 gardens of cassava this season alone.
Abarilela Farmers Group in Amuria sub-county with 416 members inclusive of the disabled persons has gained more from the intervention.
Teresa Agoe, one of the group members, told theCooperator that they also received a mixer that mixes animal feeds and a pelting machine to reduce wastage of feeds.
She added that not only have they embraced growing of rice, cassava and soya beans but supplemented their income to purchase a soya oil presser that has boosted both cash inflow in terms of soya oil sales and food plus manure from the soya residuals.
Acowa Youth Farmers Group currently owns 2.5 acres of NAROCAS 1; the stems were donated to them by Development Initiative for Northern Uganda [DINU] late last year.
Micheal Omoj, the Chairperson of Acowa Youth Farmers Group is optimistic that the cassava after harvest will improve their livelihoods.
However, John Robert Okwi, the Secretary of Acowa Farmers Cooperative said, as farmers, they are faced with a series of challenges among which include limited land, lack of proper storage facilities, lack of access to the market for their produce, pests and diseases, poor farming and climate change methods among others which have demoralized some people from engaging in agriculture which is the backbone of Uganda’s economy.
He also lamented that most farmers are grappling with high maintenance costs of the machinery, lack of electricity to run the machinery.
According to Okwi, they don’t have electricity in their area and they run the machinery with fuel given its recent increased price.
“I want the government and other development partners like Development Initiative for Northern Uganda to help us connect us to the market, help us with the irrigation system to overcome the challenge of climate change and build storage facilities for farmers to store their agricultural produce,” urged Okwi.
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