PGS certification opens new market opportunities for smallholder farmers
The Participatory Guarantee System (PGS), a locally driven quality assurance scheme, is giving Ugandan farmer groups an opportunity to turn sustainable farming practices into a market advantage by demonstrating the quality and integrity of their produce.
During the event, Namuwooza said farmer groups that had received PGS certificates now had greater capacity to distinguish their produce in the marketplace, build consumer confidence and pursue access to more organised and potentially higher-value markets. (Photo by Titus Kakembo)
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Uganda’s smallholder farmers are being equipped with a new tool that will help them access organised and potentially higher-value markets as demand for organic food continues to grow globally.
The Participatory Guarantee System (PGS), a locally driven quality assurance scheme, is giving Ugandan farmer groups an opportunity to turn sustainable farming practices into a market advantage by demonstrating the quality and integrity of their produce.
The president of the African Organic Network (AfrONet), Chriton Namuwooza, said the opportunity was significant for Uganda, where the challenge was no longer simply how to grow food without damaging the soil, environment and health of consumers.
“It is how farmers can prove the quality of what they grow, win the confidence of buyers and turn that confidence into income. That is where PGS comes in,” Namuwooza told New Vision online today (August 17).
Earlier, Namuwooza addressed a ceremony held at Millennium Terrace Hotel in Kamwokya, Kampala, on August 5, 2026, organised by PELUM Uganda in collaboration with the Ministry of Agriculture and the PGS Council, during which he announced the new tool.
During the event, Namuwooza said farmer groups that had received PGS certificates now had greater capacity to distinguish their produce in the marketplace, build consumer confidence and pursue access to more organised and potentially higher-value markets.
The latest edition of The World of Organic Agriculture, published by the Research Institute of Organic Agriculture (FiBL) and IFOAM – Organics International, says organic agriculture is practised in more than 180 countries, with nearly 99 million hectares of agricultural land under organic management and at least 4.8 million farmers involved. Global sales of organic food and drink reached almost €145 billion in 2025.
For smallholder farmers, the attraction of PGS is that it provides a locally focused quality assurance system based on farmer participation, peer review, transparency and trust. This can make quality assurance more accessible than conventional third-party certification systems.
The bigger opportunity, however, lies beyond the certificate itself.
Andrew Byamugisha, a senior agriculture inspector at the Ministry of Agriculture, noted, “If properly linked to buyers, PGS could enable farmers to move from selling undifferentiated produce to selling trusted, traceable and recognisable agroecological products.”
Protecting the certificate
The commercial value of PGS depends on maintaining the integrity of the system, observed Vincent Okema, a project coordinator at the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Cooperatives.
Okema cautioned the graduating farmer groups to adhere to the standards governing PGS certification or risk losing their certificates.
He urged members to monitor one another's practices and advise colleagues whenever they identify activities that could compromise the system.
“One member's mistake can have the entire group out of business if they break the rules in one way or another,” Okema said.
The warning reflects the collective nature of PGS. Unlike systems based solely on external inspection, participating farmers have a role in monitoring and maintaining the standards of their groups.
Julie Nakalanda Matovu, a representative on the National PGS Board, said farmers targeting international markets must understand that different destinations have different requirements for organic produce.
She said produce destined for the European Union (EU), for instance, must comply with EU organic requirements covering prohibited substances and inputs, soil and crop management and measures to prevent contamination.
“Traceability of every consignment needs to be maintained through the supply chain - from the farmer or group, through aggregation and processing, to the exporter and importer,” Matovu said.
EU rules require imported products marketed as organic to meet the bloc's organic requirements. For exporters from countries such as Uganda, certification for the EU market must be undertaken by a control body or authority recognised by the European Commission.
This means PGS can help smallholder farmers organise production, demonstrate good agricultural practices and build trust in their produce. But a PGS certificate alone does not automatically qualify produce for sale as organic in the EU.
Uganda's challenge, therefore, is to connect growing interest in PGS with reliable markets, stronger farmer organisations, traceability, aggregation, processing and certification systems that meet the requirements of individual export destinations.
Farmers eye bigger markets
For farmers, however, certification is already raising expectations.
Joseph Olaro, a certified farmer from Kaberamaido district, said the process had given his group greater confidence to target bigger markets.
“I am excited about this certification, and I look forward to putting the new skills into practice. As a farmers' group, we are now going to target bigger markets, starting by increasing the volume of groundnuts, sesame and sorghum we produce,” Olaro said.
Ruparelia Group of Companies chairperson Sudhir Ruparelia, who has experience in exporting flowers to European markets, said organic farming presented a significant opportunity for Uganda, but warned that international markets demanded more than simply avoiding synthetic chemicals.
“Farmers and exporters must meet the standards of their target markets, obtain certification from recognised bodies and maintain proper traceability from the farm to the consumer. Production, handling, processing, packaging and labelling must also comply with the required organic standards,” Ruparelia said.
He said Uganda needed to invest in certification, farmer organisation and quality-management systems if it was to capture a larger share of the expanding organic market.
“PGS can help smallholders build trust and organise production, but exporters must meet the destination market's requirements,” he said.
For Uganda's smallholder farmers, therefore, the value of PGS may ultimately be measured not by the certificate hanging on a wall, but by what happens after certification.