Leaders of Sebei Elgon Cooperative Union have now come into agreement with Anderson Farm Limited, a Kenyan company prominent in business at both local and international level, dealing in floriculture and horticulture at the west border to Uganda.
The deal in agreement ensue from both parties capable of shouldering each other as union utilizes the opportunity of having resources that supports production, the deal on the table is for the union to give out five acres of land for an avocado demonstration farm owned by the investor in exchange of tapping water to the farmland for irrigation, where more than five hundred hectares of land are to be planted with coffee.
This project seems to be turning a point at the end of the tunnel as it will kick off late January, or February beginning when the land is already tilted and the remaining piece hired out to the farmers a cost of 250,000 per acre.
The future projection of this business is to eradicate the problem of price fluctuation that has been hampering the farmers faces with an estimated period of five years to come as the union is expected to be leading with coffee production and export business, Outcomes, the coffee business will enable the region to stabilize the prices of both maize and coffee,
The said 1 billion shillings to be collected from the farmers out of 1,500 hectares of Kapyoyon farmland which was expected to be hired for a period of two years discussed during the annual general meeting on October last year’s fortune lastly takes an expected twist to one year as poverty rumbles the region. The lack of market for maize production brought in low prices that fluctuated terribly across the region leaving farmers with no choice but to go for a year of farmland with the union expecting half a billion shillings to be collected from the farmers.
Mr Soyekwo Emmanuel, the chairman Sebei Elgon Cooperative Union, with his efforts towards stabilizing the growth and development of the union speaking to the cooperator said, “I request the farmers to understand the unions objectives as we pursue this cooperative movement, boost our coffee production fund, sell our coffee outside the country with more profit returns that will enable us have our own economic growth and stability as we create job employment for our own people”.
The union has been mired by a lot of illogicalities in the past as corruption has been a threat to growth, sectarianisms, greed, leaders lack integrity and lack of unity. This calls for the farmers to be sensitized on leadership and values about cooperatives and putting to an end the miss management of funds or the union account.
Charicha ADC one of the prominent farmer and an activist in Sebei region said “corruption has become a pandemic, an epidemic disease. But I have one believe and this is, we need to be transparent and accountable, speak the truth, shame the man and get them out of the system without fear or favor”.
However, the unions prosperity lies upon an organized leadership whom, they have already put structures right in Kapchorwa, managed to recover back the lost land and other properties within the last one year, free from any financial institution but at the moment buying their own coffee from farmers this year as they plan to renovate Kapyoyon’s prestigious farm hotel
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