Minister Kyambadde urges farmers to join cooperatives

By Jeff Andrew Lule

MPIGI - The minister of trade, industry and cooperatives Amelia Anne Kyambadde has called on Ugandan farmers to form or join cooperative societies so as to easily address the issue of limited market for their produce.

She says many farmers still face the problem of market because they are not attached to any organized group.

While addressing a rally in Mpigi district recently, Kyambadde spoke of how individual farmers make losses after being duped by canny middlemen from the city.

“When you join a cooperative, it is always a sure deal that your produce like beans, coffee and others always have ready market.”

The minister underlined that government has made the development of cooperatives a priority intervention for social-economic transformation to fight poverty.

During the gathering staged at Umea Primary School in Bujuuko, Muduma sub-county, she talked of how such groups help resource mobilization, negotiations, and increased production, on top of creating employment to the people.

"It also promotes value-addition and always has ready market with relatively stable prices compared to individual farmers. Farmers can easily get loans from their cooperatives to solve their problems.”
 

Here, the minister (C) with a group of farmers after giving them hoes at Umea Primary School. (Photo credit: Jeff A. Lule)

Kyambadde, who is the area MP (Mawokota North), emphasized the need for legislators and other local leaders to help their people to form cooperatives as the best way of fighting poverty.

Low earnings from produce

Earlier, she toured various agricultural projects, and individual farmers in Lugyo, Kolokolo and Bujuuko villages.

Through the Twezimbe Development Foundation (TDF) – a non-profit organisation working to promote social transformation among the rural community, where she is a patron – the minister gave out hoes, tree seedlings, maize seeds and spray pumps to different farmer groups. She also gave out 80 blankets to elderly residents.

During that tour, various farmers complained of limited market for their products and the volatility of prices.
 

Minister Kyambadde also toured a fish poject in Kolokolo village. (Photo credit: Jeff A. Lule)

David Kazibwe, a large scale farmer of pumpkins and egg-plants in Kolokolo, said prices are the main challenge to their work.

"I sell a sack of pumpkins at sh25,000 and a sack of eggplants at sh20,000. This is very low compared to what we invest in labour and other inputs. We earn less compared to what we invest,” he said.

Moses Jingo, of Bujuuko village savings group, stressed the problem of water scarcity.

He said there is need for government to support farmers to start up simple irrigation schemes to increase production.

"We have water sources but we do not have the means to pump water to irrigate our crops. Government should support us with the basic infrastructure.”
 

Minister Kyambadde talking to one the elderly people in Kolokolo. (Photo credit: Jeff A. Lule)

Nevertheless, Minister Kyambadde said she appreciated the rate at which people were developing through group projects in the area, noting that 122 cooperatives and 62 SACCOs have already been registered.

"Government can only negotiate with organized groups. That is why I want our farmers to join cooperatives and SACCOs,” she explained.

Uganda has about 12,000 cooperative societies with agriculture accounting for over 50%.

According to the minister, agriculture remains the backbone of Uganda by supporting millions of livelihoods and contributing substantially to the economy.

Agriculture is the most important sector of the economy, employing over 80% of the work force in Uganda.