Farmers tipped on value addition

May 04, 2016

Instead of selling raw milk, farmers should work together and add value

Farmers have been urged to add value to their produce to get higher returns from agriculture.

President Yoweri Museveni's senior presidential adviser on political affairs, Moses Byaruhanga, made the recommendation while addressing farmers who visited his farm in Bale, Kayunga last Saturday.

The farm that sits on 320 acres has over 100 cows, goats and a matooke plantation on close to 20 acres. With 30 milking cows, the farm gets about 500 litres of milk daily.

Byaruhanga noted that instead of selling raw milk, farmers should work together and add value to their milk and produce cheese, yoghurt and pack their milk. He noted that by adding value, farmers will earn higher profits.

"When you add value to a product, you earn three times what you would have if you had sold the product raw," he said.

The farmers' team leader, Dr Aggrey Kyobuguzi, who is the managing director of Kentim Agriculture Training Centre in Kyanja, Kampala advised farm owners to continuously attend refresher courses and agriculture learning tours to learn from experienced farmers how to manage their farms as businesses.

"Learning does not stop. You may think that you know everything, but a visit like this one will learn many new things," he said.

Byaruhanga is the managing director of Mega Farm, which produces Mega milk and yoghurt, sold countrywide.

The farmers were organised through social media, particularly, WhatsApp and Facebook.

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