NEBBI – With Cassava growing as their main activity, Angali Producers’ Cooperative Society is struggling to raise over Shs 120 million to procure a tractor that would greatly enhance their production.
The cooperative tills over 600 acres of cassava using hired labour which they say is expensive and time-consuming.
Located in Nyaravur Sub-county in Nebbi district, Angali Producers’ Cooperative Society has over 40,000 cassava out-growers, producing at least 30 percent of the required cassava produce for bulking at the cooperative.
Francis Onoba, the team leader at the cooperative says the management team set an annual target of over Shs 100mln to procure a tractor that would simplify work at the different expansive land areas owned by the cooperative, as well as tilling farms of out-growers.
“We set a financial target to procure a tractor by January 2023, but many of our out-growers did not plant due to the prolonged drought. Until recently, they have not been able to plant,” he said while talking to this reporter.
Onoba says management has embarked on developing alternative avenues to raise the money required to realize their dream of owning a tractor, which he says should be achieved in a space of two years with good production.
He says management is considering proposing to members to save at least Shs 10,000 every month for the purchase of the tractor.
“We want to develop a proposal to our members to ask them to save money in a collective effort so that we can raise the required amount to buy the tractor,” he says.
The cooperative has at least 471 active members, involved in production, saving, and other activities. Management is considering selling shares to raise funds that would finance the procurement of a tractor before acquiring a loan from within to top up.
Onoba says the cooperative has ploughs, planting tools, and harvesting technologies.
Acquiring a tractor would enhance production at the Cooperative, increase income accruing to the Society from hiring the equipment to out-growers and also enhance the production levels of out-growers.
This would collectively mechanise farming at the cooperative, increase aggregated production, reduce costs of production, increase efficiency and enhance incomes at the household level.
Early this year, Onoba was the overall winner in the individual youth category of the Legacy Awards organised by The Uhuru Institute for Social Development [TUI] during the Annual Youth Camp hosted in Kampala.
He won Shs 2 million which he used to procure a weeding machine that has made life much easier for the farm managers who now don’t have to worry much about weeds.
The weeding machine has the capacity to weed at least 4 acres in a day, an output that had initially never been attained. The same is hired out to out-growers who are charged at least Shs 35,000 [30,000] per acre, raising income for the cooperative.
Okumu Jimmy, an out-grower in Nyaravur Township says the weeding machine has saved them a lot of time and increased efficiency in production.
“The machine is good for us farmers who do not have much money to pay labourers. The grass is cleared in a short time, and it allows your cassava to grow,” he told this reporter.
To achieve protocols of value addition, Onoba argues government to provide the West Nile region with reliable electricity to enable them to run some of their machines.
He says the youth have invested many resources in terms of money, skills, and time to farm but the lack of adequate infrastructure is a challenge to them.
“We do not have reliable electricity here to efficiently run many of our machines, yet the investment in agribusiness in this region is enormous. We argue the government to extend for us hydroelectricity,” he says.
Government contracted WENRECO-West Nile Rural Electrification Company to distribute electricity in the area, although the agency has developed structural challenges over time, affecting the business economy of the region.
Onoba singled out other facilities like storage that are critical for bulking in the post-harvest period.
Communities in the West Nile rely quite heavily on agricultural production, with many involved in cassava production, maize, groundnuts, and sim sim.
Much of the agricultural output is exported to South Sudan and the Democratic Republic of Congo giving the region a ready market.
With the influx of refugees from the two neighboring states, population in the region has also increased, creating a big market for food produced.
https://thecooperator.news/agricultural-investment-teso-youth-ask-for-tractors-at-gathering/
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