Avoid middlemen, farmers told

Nov 11, 2007

FARMERS must avoid middlemen if they are to reap big from their produce, the World Bank’s lead economist in charge of agriculture and development in Africa has advised.

By Joel Ogwang

FARMERS must avoid middlemen if they are to reap big from their produce, the World Bank’s lead economist in charge of agriculture and development in Africa has advised.

Madur Gautum said the middlemen, who also double as exporters, were benefiting at the expense of the farmers.

He hailed the National Agricultural Advisory Services (NAADS) for its extension services that have enabled the farmers to increase production.

“But NAADS should also explore a marketing function to ease farmers’ woes. Marketing is the last stage in the production chain.”

Gautum, who was touring farmers’ projects in Goma sub-county, Mukono, urged the farmers to add value to their products so as to fetch higher prices.

He told the farmers to maintain good quality products because quality is vital in international markets.

Alice Nyanzi, the Mukono NAADS coordinator, said they had so far expanded to 27 sub-counties.

Through the Integrated Support to Farmer Groups project, she said, farmers were being assisted to upgrade technology.

“We allow farmers to identify technologies they feel are appropriate and give them loans. It should, however, not exceed sh1m.”

Nyanzi said access to feeds was one of the major challenges for the farmers, but NAADS was assisting them to solve the problem.

She dismissed claims that NAADS had failed to improve the farmers’ livelihoods, saying those who had shown interest in the programme had improved their yields.

Nyanzi hailed the district’s leaders for cooperating with NAADS.

(adsbygoogle = window.adsbygoogle || []).push({});