Bushenyi district to form tea SACCOs in 12 subcounties

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Bushenyi District Local Government has announced plans to form tea farmers’ cooperatives in 12 subcounties and town councils to strengthen the tea sector and support farmers.

The initiative, launched on November 11, 2025, began with training sessions for farmers in Bitooma subcounty and will continue until November 19, 2025.

The training is being coordinated by the district’s Department of Trade, Industry and Local Economic Development (TILED), according to district commercial officer Christine Hope Komujuni.

The cooperatives will be established in Bitooma, Kyamuhunga, Kizinda, Nyabubare, Nkanga, Kakanju, Ibaare, Ruhumuro, Kabugimbi, and Kyeizooba subcounties, among others.

In a letter dated November 7, 2025, addressed to principal assistant town clerks and senior assistant secretaries, Swizen Kutambaki, writing on behalf of the Chief Administrative Officer, said the move was in line with the national strategy to transition farmers from subsistence to commercial agriculture.

“The president of Uganda has always been actively encouraging farmers to work in groups and adopt specific farming models to transition from subsistence to commercial agriculture,” the letter stated.

The letter further read, “It’s from this model of farming and cooperation that Bushenyi district, through the office of Trade, Industry and Local Economic Development, has embarked on the process of forming tea cooperatives in 12 subcounties which are predominantly involved in tea farming.”

The letter also directed subcounty technical leaders to mobilise farmers for training and registration.

“As the technical leaders in your sub-counties and town councils, this letter is therefore to inform you to actively involve yourselves in the mobilisation of all farmers in your areas of operation so that the commercial department officers train them and organise them to form tea cooperatives which will thereon be registered officially,” it said.

Farmers express mixed feelings

Some farmers have expressed mixed feelings about the initiative, citing past challenges in the tea sector.

Saverino Mabanja, a tea farmer from Rwengoma village in Kakanju subcounty, welcomed the idea but called for stronger regulation of the tea industry.

“If managed well, the SACCOs will work. The new micro-level approach may work a little better,” Mabanja said, further noting that the only solution is to put in place a tea quality regulatory body and empower it to act.

He said, “The lack of regulation in the tea sector has killed it completely. The absence of quality control mechanisms has allowed buyers to exploit farmers.”

“The tea vendors, unlike a global company, do not have any control over quality. They compete poorly due to a lack of regulation. For us who are on ground, we have seen scenarios where other buyers reject the leaves due to poor plucking, and the global guys take everything,” Mabanja said.

Victoria Ashabahebwa, chairperson of the board of the Uganda Tea Association, said the new SACCOs should learn from the successes and failures of existing cooperatives in the district.

“This new initiative should build on the success of existing SACCOs in Bushenyi District, like IGABU and Kyamuhunga Peoples SACCO, whose foundation is tea business,” she said.

Ashabahebwa explained that the new cooperatives should provide tailored financial services that suit the cash flow patterns of tea farmers, who often receive payments daily or weekly.

“It ought to provide tailored financial services that cater to the unique needs of tea farmers in addition to leveraging collective marketing and purchasing power to negotiate better prices for inputs and outputs, and forge partnerships with manufacturers for improved payment terms,” she noted.

She stressed that financial literacy and governance will be key to the success of the new SACCOs.

“To succeed, the SACCO should prioritise financial literacy training that’s specific to the cash-intensive nature of tea farming. Poor governance, among other reasons, led to the failure of the cooperatives. Therefore, strong leadership, effective management, and robust systems will be crucial in driving the SACCO's growth and innovation,” Ashabahebwa said.

She added that innovation should be central to the new model. “With a laser focus on serving tea farmers, innovation should be a key pillar for services that address the sector's specific challenges and opportunities.”

Bushenyi district is among Uganda’s leading tea-producing areas, with thousands of smallholder farmers depending on the crop for their livelihoods.

Training sessions across the sub-counties will continue until November 19, after which the cooperatives are expected to be officially registered and begin operations.