Agro processing could improve farmers' livelihood

According to the food and agriculture organization 80% Ugandans depend on farming for their livelihoods and in case there is  natural hazards and bad weather, many are left with nothing or little to harvest, which has made many suffer from poverty and famine.

However, if farmers are helped to add value on what they harvest, their lives would be improved because their earning will not be the same.

Lembus Munyanyi a former engineer quit his job and ventured into farming.

He is into planting maize, beans, yams and other food crops. 

He juggles this with poultry and cattle rearing. One thing I have decided to do is to add value onto my produce so I can earn from it.

"For my milk, I have partnered with companies that make yoghurt and I also add value to it by making yoghurt something that makes me earn more," he notes.

"I no longer sale my products to middle men, they give little pay and yet when they sell, they earn a lot. Some actually add value and the results are overwhelming," he adds

Getrude Newumbe a Bamboo farmer has decided not only to earn from bamboo shoots and bamboo trees but she has also settled to make creams out of Bamboo leaves.

This has made her enjoy her retirement because she earns much more than she used to earn as a teacher.

If she had not sought so hard of how to add value to her products, she wouldn't be a happy woman.

Those are just few farmers that have decided to embrace the idea of agro processing to add value on their products so that they can earn more from them.

Hassan Kalyango a farmer from Kabembe village in Mukono district notes that even when they harvest good yields, they earn little from them.

"We sell the produce to middle men who give us little money and take our produce and sell to earn more from it. It's worse if the market is flooded. 

Prices drop and the farmers earn nothing. If only farmers would form groups whereby they can acquire land as a group and do farming as a team, then marketing produce would be made easier, "he says.

"Here ideas of value addition would be sourced for to ensure that a farmer gains from what she does and also starts taking it as employment," he adds.

According to Mugoya Awali Ogonzaki the secretary general Uganda national farmer's federation says agro processing is still a challenge, but if farmers and the government embrace it, it would help both small and large scale farmers improve their earning.

He notes that the biggest challenge now is that farmers are producing little which they consume leaving them with nothing as surplus for sell.

"I think government should empower farmers to take on farming as a job and here they will be able to produce enough for food security, nutritional security and also surplus that will be agro processed for sell, "he adds.

Benefits of agro processing

"In embracing agro processing, we would achieve collective farming and marketing where farmers will work as a group and market their produce together for better pay.

Here they will be able to source out ideas of how to improve their product to compete with others on the market," explains Ogonzaki.

He adds that in the process of agro processing, farmers who deal in fake seeds will realize quality products in order to be able to compete.

Here it will help deal with fake seeds on the market since every farmer will be settling for quality in order to be able to produce quality.

They will reinforce genuinely of products on the market hence good pay for the farmers.

He further explains that agro processing will help farmers carry out contact farming where a farmer will plant for the season knowing who is going to buy her produce and at what price.

"This can be achieved if agro processing is made possible and farmers desist from dealing with middle men who cheat them. With contract farming, the farmer will deliver his product direct to the agro processing plant and she is paid well which will encourage him to do more farming on a large scale," he notes.

Challenges

Jimmy Wesiga the Director Gold seeds international notes that much as farmers are aiming at earning big from farming, most of them have sold off their land and are left with small plots of land where they plant food that can only sustain them for a small period.

Its time Ugandans desist from selling land but rather invest in buying more so that they consider doing agriculture on a large scale.

He notes that market potential for produce has been and is still a challenge to farmers.

There is a lot of price fluctuation in the market that leaves a farmer with barely anything in the pocket at the end of the season.

Wesiga notes that today many organizations are promoting farming and agriculture but are paying no attention to making structures for farmers to realize the importance of improving on productivity levels of their produce.

Its time farmers get sensitized on different agriculture practices to better their produce.