Prioritise soy bean production now

When I set out to write this column, more than two years ago, I hardly imagined that it could attract as much positive reaction from the readers as it has done. I have got so many encouraging emails for which I am awfully grateful and I have tried my best to respond to as many of them as possible which has by itself proved a bit of a challenge. But it is the recent response from the National Soybean Network (Nsoynet) Chairman, Mr. Martin Ssali that I wish to share with my readers today having perceived it to require immediate national attention. He was reacting to my article: Soy bean bound to gain more economic importance published on July 28, 2010. After appreciating my effort to highlight the need to grow more soy bean he offered to send me an extensively researched report on why the government of Uganda needs to prioritise soy bean production and utilisation. It was authored, as he indicated, by the Executive of Nsoynet, an organisation that promotes the crop’s production.

Nsoynet argues that Uganda could get rid of malnutrition if a deliberate effort was taken by the government to encourage people to include soybean supplements in their daily diets. It described the crop as the most nutritious in the world with 40 per cent protein, 20 per cent carbohydrates, 20 per cent oil, and five per cent mineral salts and ash. It is said to yield two to three times more protein per unit area than livestock. The Nsoynet report goes on to add that given its nutritional, agricultural, and industrial importance, the demand for soybean in Uganda is overwhelmingly high and regards the intensified production of the crop as a real shortcut to the country’s economic prosperity. For example, it says, in northern Uganda alone, there are three major seed processing companies, Lira Oil Mills, Mukwano Industries, and Mountain Meru Oil Millers Industries all of which don’t have enough soybeans as a raw material.

Mountain Meru Millers alone, according to Nsoynet, has the capacity to mill 300 tonnes of soybeans into oil and soybean meal per day. This means an annual consumption of 109,000 metric tons, or 60per cent of the total national annual production, which is currently known to be 178,000 metric tonnes. Yet Mukwano Industries has similar capacity just as does Lira Oil Mills, not to mention other oil seed processors like Mukono, A&K Oils, and a whole range of others in the country which too have a high demand for the crop. “The simple statistical evaluation clearly shows that the soybean currently being produced in the country is not even enough to enable the vegetable oil processors to operate at full capacity,” says the report.

The report goes on to elaborate the demand for soybean by such companies as Maganjo Grain Millers, East African Basic Foods, Sesaco Ltd, Seba Foods in Tororo, and others engaged in production of soya flour, soya flour blends, soy beverage, soy cup, which all together require a total of more than 50,000 metric tonnes of soybean every year. It further highlights the need for a total of over 100,000 metric tonnes of crushed roasted soybean to make poultry feeds by such companies as Ugachic, Biyinzika, Mimuk Grain Millers and several others. There is also a high demand for soybean in the agricultural industries in Kenya.

It blames Uganda and other African countries for focusing policy attention on just traditional cash crops such as coffee, cotton and, nowadays, matooke and upland rice without giving due attention to what it calls the miracle crop of the world, soybean, which has left a mark wherever it has been prioritised, including the US, Japan, Brazil, and China. It quotes a senior lecturer at Makerere University, Dr Phinehas Tukamubwa as saying, “Uganda has the potential of being Africa’s giant in soybean production just like the USA, Brazil, and Argentina, the world’s soybean production giants. Uganda has some of the best soils in Africa for soybean production and still has plenty of virgin land that can be put to sustainable commercial production of the miracle crop.”

Makerere University, Nsoynet goes on to reveal, hosts the most advanced soybean breeding programme in East and Central Africa and has bred and released four improved soybean varieties recommended to be grown in Uganda due to their resistance to disease especially soybean rust, a disease that had almost wiped out all the soybeans in Uganda. The crop’s benefits to the ordinary farmer are real given that an acre could produce between two to 3.5 metric tonnes of soybeans in just about three months and a kilo of the crop selling at between Shs600 and Shs800. After the harvest the farmer may feed the soybean stems to his animals or just bury them under the ground to further fertilise the soil. This is why the government and farmers should look into growing soy bean on a large scale.

ABOUT SOY BEAN
•Soybean is said to be the most nutritious food crop in the world.
•If government encourages its inclusion in people’s daily diets, the country could get rid of malnutrition.
•It is very much on demand since we have so many factories and industries that use it as raw material.
•It has been a priority crop in all those countries that are today economic giants like the US, Japan and China.
•Uganda has a high potential because it has the best soil for the crop’s production in Africa.
•Makerere has produced disease resistant and very good quality seed.
•The crop’s farm gate price is quite competitive and the crop matures in an average three months.