Local firm, American body move to boost soy agribusiness

Nov 09, 2014

Commercial crop farming is considered as one of the key undertakings with the ability to salvage people from the jaws of household poverty and empower communities with food security.


By David Ssempijja

Commercial crop farming is considered as one of the key undertakings with the ability to salvage people from the jaws of household poverty and empower communities with food security.
 
However no much attention is currently being accorded to soy production despite its untold roles in boosting nutrition.
 
Against that background, World Initiative for Soy in Human Health (WISHH), an American body together with SESACO, a local soybean processing company is pursuing a partnership directed at exploring a broad usage of soy and its products to stimulate demand and occasion modern commercial farming.
 
According to the WISHH program manager Anita Florido, partnering with soybean processors in Uganda and other countries in Africa seeks to enable technical knowledge transfer through providing assistance in form of developing food products (food value chain) with soy as one of the key ingredients.
 
“We strongly believe that if society understands and appreciates the relevancy of soy in human health, its uptake rate will be uplifted, that’s why we need to deal with the demand side comprising consumers and when the demand  is up, then the market will grow and more farmers will get interested in venturing in commercial soy farming,” she said.
 
Florido was on Thursday speaking to the media on the sidelines of a two day workshop held at the Uganda Industrial Research Institute to sensitise chefs from across the country on making a range of food products from soybeans and flour and how to integrate them in their menus.
 
Soybeans can be processed into products like; milk, meat, oil, beverages, oil, spices, poultry/livestock and aquaculture feeds; while soy flour is widely used as a key ingredient in numerous baked products.
 
Charles Nsubuga, the managing director for SESACO revealed that currently the local market is supplied with soy milk and soy meat (best alternatives to that from animals) tea spices and baked products but there is a lot more to explore but technology to do so is expensive for individuals cottage industries like SESACO.
 
Soybeans are ranked as a complete protein source for children and adults, providing essential amino acids required for proper human growth and development, in addition to its huge economic importance.
 
Uganda loses over sh1.8 trillion per year due to the population’s ill health related to malnutrition in adults and children, a case detrimental to the country’s economic development.
 
“We still need to undertake advanced steps into initiatives like research on better seed varieties, mechanised farming, recommended planting methods, on-farm and post-harvest handling among others to boost the yields per land area planted.
 
Whereas in Ugandan, soy farmers harvest not more than 700 kilograms of dry soybeans per acre, farmers in America yield up to 1,500 kilograms from the same acreage.

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