Lango cries foul over sun flower pricing
HAVING lived through the four decades of cotton plunging from being a top cash crop to just another crop, Jasper Odongo wholly embraced the commercial introduction of the sunflower a few years ago.
By David Mugabe
HAVING lived through the four decades of cotton plunging from being a top cash crop to just another crop, Jasper Odongo wholly embraced the commercial introduction of the sunflower a few years ago.
The sunflower presented an assured market from the suppliers of the seeds who also provided a fixed buying price in Lango sub-region.
For three years, Odongo cultivated the sunflower until he realised the slight progress ushered in by the cash crop had stagnated, just like cotton did.
Now farmers like Odongo, from Lira and Oyam, have slowly moved away from growing and supplying sunflowers because of the low prices.
Mukwano is currently paying sh700 for a kilo for sunflower cakes, while Mount Meru pays sh770.
Mukwano has a sunflower oil processing plant, while Mount Meru, a new firm, is developing its plant in Lira and will, reportedly, sign contracts with farmers upon supplying them with seeds.
According to Robert Adwek, Mukwano’s operations manager in Lira, they sell seeds to farmers who grow them and in turn supply Mukwano with the sunflower cakes after harvest.
Mukwano is contracted to 50,000 farmers whom they sell planting seeds to.
A kilo of planting seeds costs sh10,500. Out of one kilo of sunflower, Mukwano gets 3 litres of oil. A litre of sunflower oil goes for about sh3,500. Farmers claim the processing firms are making enough money and should pay them higher prices.
When Mukwano introduced Pan 7351 hybrid sunflower in 2004, farmers immersed themselves in growing it and in just five years, over 50,000 tonnes were produced from the arrangement.
According to a Mukwano official, out of one acre, a farmer harvests between 600-800 kilos depending on their agricultural practices.
This may fetch the farmer a profit of sh100, 000 out of an acre per planting season, which translates into sh200,000 per acre, per year.
Farmers and their representatives have reportedly written several memoranda to the Mukwano management in Kampala in their quest for better pay, but have been blocked by field officers in Lira.
“On-site buyers are making a big difference,†said a farmer. According to Will Ojuk, a farmer from Oyam, their site coordination officers are put under pressure if farmers decide to sell their produce to other competitors.
But Adwek denied the allegations saying it is an open market and they do not restrict farmers from selling their produce to only Mukwano.
One of the farmers complained that when Mukwano entered the market, farmers were supplied with weighing scales for each site co-ordination.
Yet after the first season, sh350,000 was chopped off per weighing scale.
There is no doubt that the presence of Mukwano has boosted the growing of this cash crop and also helped household cash incomes.
Yet, the concern about peasant exploitation remains an unresolved matter in several upscale investments.
There is no minimum wage in Uganda and the farmers take up sunflower growing voluntarily.
The other example of peasant exploitation is the recent strike in the horticulture sector where farmers complained of poor pay and fatal working conditions.
HAVING lived through the four decades of cotton plunging from being a top cash crop to just another crop, Jasper Odongo wholly embraced the commercial introduction of the sunflower a few years ago.
The sunflower presented an assured market from the suppliers of the seeds who also provided a fixed buying price in Lango sub-region.
For three years, Odongo cultivated the sunflower until he realised the slight progress ushered in by the cash crop had stagnated, just like cotton did.
Now farmers like Odongo, from Lira and Oyam, have slowly moved away from growing and supplying sunflowers because of the low prices.
Mukwano is currently paying sh700 for a kilo for sunflower cakes, while Mount Meru pays sh770.
Mukwano has a sunflower oil processing plant, while Mount Meru, a new firm, is developing its plant in Lira and will, reportedly, sign contracts with farmers upon supplying them with seeds.
According to Robert Adwek, Mukwano’s operations manager in Lira, they sell seeds to farmers who grow them and in turn supply Mukwano with the sunflower cakes after harvest.
Mukwano is contracted to 50,000 farmers whom they sell planting seeds to.
A kilo of planting seeds costs sh10,500. Out of one kilo of sunflower, Mukwano gets 3 litres of oil. A litre of sunflower oil goes for about sh3,500. Farmers claim the processing firms are making enough money and should pay them higher prices.
When Mukwano introduced Pan 7351 hybrid sunflower in 2004, farmers immersed themselves in growing it and in just five years, over 50,000 tonnes were produced from the arrangement.
According to a Mukwano official, out of one acre, a farmer harvests between 600-800 kilos depending on their agricultural practices.
This may fetch the farmer a profit of sh100, 000 out of an acre per planting season, which translates into sh200,000 per acre, per year.
Farmers and their representatives have reportedly written several memoranda to the Mukwano management in Kampala in their quest for better pay, but have been blocked by field officers in Lira.
“On-site buyers are making a big difference,†said a farmer. According to Will Ojuk, a farmer from Oyam, their site coordination officers are put under pressure if farmers decide to sell their produce to other competitors.
But Adwek denied the allegations saying it is an open market and they do not restrict farmers from selling their produce to only Mukwano.
One of the farmers complained that when Mukwano entered the market, farmers were supplied with weighing scales for each site co-ordination.
Yet after the first season, sh350,000 was chopped off per weighing scale.
There is no doubt that the presence of Mukwano has boosted the growing of this cash crop and also helped household cash incomes.
Yet, the concern about peasant exploitation remains an unresolved matter in several upscale investments.
There is no minimum wage in Uganda and the farmers take up sunflower growing voluntarily.
The other example of peasant exploitation is the recent strike in the horticulture sector where farmers complained of poor pay and fatal working conditions.