Kamuswaga advises farmers to form networks to market their products

Feb 13, 2019

Together with his cabinet ministers and some district officials, Kamuswaga visited different small and large-scale farmers and advised them on the importance of groups networking.

 
 
Apollo Ssansa Kabumbuli II, the Kooki Chiefdom head (Kamuswaga) has advised farmers in different sub-counties to create or join farmers' networks in an effort to look for market for their products.
 
Together with his cabinet ministers and some district officials, Kamuswaga visited different small and large-scale farmers and advised them on the importance of groups networking.
 
He further explained that it is easier for farmers in a group to get connections, look for markets and also transport the products, however, remote it may be.
 
Apart from the lack of markets, he noted that some farmers fail to benefit from their sweat due to poor quality products that are barely marketable locally and internationally.
 
He further urged farmers not to lose hope due to the existing challenges in the sector and promised to link them to different networks in search markets. 
 
"We will do what's in our capacity to advise farmers, help to look for opportunities to sell, and also link them (farmers) to networks that will benefit them. We have advised them to reach us in case of ideas and any other support as regards farming," he said.
 
Musoke Gyaviira, one of the large-scale banana farmers in Dwaniro sub-county, told the delegation of how he earns just one million shillings from his 5-acre-plantation every season yet others earn ten times from the same size plantation.
 
He attributed his fate to lack of direct market, remoteness of the plantation and the main trading centres plus lack of machinery for value addition.
 
Milly Namatovu, another prominent coffee and banana farmer also has goats and piggery projects. She said that the market for her pigs is still a challenge due to lack of buyers. 
 
Namatovu explained that she reaches a point of giving them out free of charge. 
 
Although Rakai is a semi-arid district, Amos Mandela, the Buyamba County MP, argued that the fertile areas can generate enough food for subsistence and for sale.
 
He added that Rakai has various large-scale banana and coffee plantations plus Irish potato, tomato gardens, and livestock mainly cattle, goats, and pigs.
 
He attributed the farmers' suffering to middlemen that pay humiliating farm-gate prices which we are trying to address," he said.
 
Mandela further identified other challenges such as lack of information and training to enable them to improve product quality and quantity.
 
Sometimes, he argued, it is impossible for the farmers to sell products without knowing what the consumers actually want.
 
Other activities 
 
According to Al-Hajji Idi Ahmed Kiwanuka, the Kooki Prime minister, the purpose of the tour was to encourage farmers, extend support to the needy people especially elderly women in different communities.
 
He said that Kooki administration learned about the suffering of various households. In his explanation, some were living in shacks while others lacked some basic needs to push them further.
 
Hampers including soap, sugar, paraffin, and others were presented to over 15 elderly people in Byenjovu village in Dwaniro.

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