Cooperatives boost cocoa farming in Bundibugyo

It is common perception that rural areas have abundant food than the money in supply but where this is not the case, then questions start. Welcome to Bundibugyo, a rural district with fertile soils and abundant rainfall but the average prices for food are also double that of Kampala. In fact, despite having the land to farm, residents buy food from neighbouring Kabarole District and DR Congo.

When asked why this is the status quo, Sarah Bbiira, a resident of Bundinyama village, blames the cocoa boom. Much of the land is dedicated to the cash crop than to food crops. And one would understand the lucrative nature of cocoa business through cooperative societies.

For instance, Bundinyama as one of the major cocoa producing areas in the district has the Bundinyama cooperative society.

Founded by 18 farmers in September 2013, the cooperative society collected 672 kgs of cocoa for its first sale. The price was at Shs5,000 per kilogramme totalling to Shs3.36m. According to Paul Bazaala, the group’s general secretary, after two weeks, another 2,333 kgs were sold at Shs5,750 per kilo while the third sale fetched Shs21.3m out of the 3,642 kgs sold at a unit price of Shs5,850.

Bazaala explains, “Membership was growing as well by the time. When we made our sixth sale, we had 42 members pooling 4,000 kilogrammes of dried cocoa.”

Another group is Bubomboli Kweyamba cooperative society at the Uganda-DR Congo border. Started in May 2013, they had sold more than 20 metric tonnes of cocoa by end of the year. Of the 224 members in the cooperative society, 95 are female. Stephen Musinguzi, the chairperson, says in a single sale, the group can make Shs20m and above.
“We collect and market as a group because individual marketing encourages buyers to dupe us. We have built a store and have bought land to build offices and bigger stores,” he adds.

Enter the cooperatives
The story can never be complete without mentioning Bundibugyo Cocoa Association (BCA), the umbrella organisation that brings together 35 cooperative societies, that is 2,380 individual farmers.

Methodius Balyesiima, BCA programme coordinator, notes that the association is a product of the lessons learnt from the defunct Mataisa Cocoa Farmers Association.
“We learnt that the major challenge faced by farmers was disunity, buyers took advantage of the situation and manipulated us. Farmers were price takers. There was a cartel among buyers to keep the prices low since we had no information regarding world market prices,” he explains.

“Another issue was the lack of professional extension workers in the district. We thus initiated farmer field schools to mobilise all famers in the district on pests and disease control, quality and pricing.”
While still studying his degree in agricultural extension services at Makerere University, Balyesiima worked as an intern with cocoa farmers. During this period, he focused on disease and pest control.
“The prices were abnormally low; Shs2,000 compared to the current Shs7,000 per kilogramme. Some farmers were cutting their trees for charcoal burning,” he says.

In September 2008, BCA was launched when a kilo of cocoa was trending between Shs2,000 and Shs2,500. The two cooperatives made their first sale out of collective marketing. That day, 187 metric tonnes were collected and sold. By the end of 2013, BCA had grown to 16 cooperatives collecting 500 metric tonnes fetching Shs2.8b. From January to June 2014, the same groups collected 590 metric tonnes fetching a total revenue of Shs3.9b.

Though the initial idea behind the formation of the BCA was to bring together all value chain actors in the cocoa business, “We later realised that traders continued undermining our struggle for better prices so we threw them out. Individual producers or farmers subscribe to their respective cooperatives at parish level which also subscribe to the association at district level,” Balyesiima says.

An individual farmer joins a producer group at the village or parish level with a subscription fee of Shs10,000 plus buying shares worth Shs20,000 each. “Every group determines the minimum number of shares each member must attain as an initial deposit,” explains Rhoda Kabaliisa, chairperson, Mulungitanwa cooperative society.

Perhaps, it is because of such organisation that farmers in Bundibugyo have been able to control the market and benefit from cocoa trade. Currently a kilogramme is priced at between Shs6,800 and Shs7,500.
Information from Swiss Contact indicates Uganda gets 90 per cent of the international market price owing to the recent political instabilities in major producers in West Africa like Ivory Coast.

Since November 2012, Swiss Contact launched a programme to work at improving the livelihoods of cocoa farmers. This is through facilitating direct access to information on international cocoa market prices. The channels are either with the aid of the internet, from where the BCA taps information about prices and sends text messages, or via the radio programmes on Voice of Bundibugyo.

The other side of cocoa

Edmund Bishaka, the district production officer, reveals that in last financial year, about Shs90b worth of cocoa exchanged hands in Bundibugyo. Though this makes cocoa trade a lucrative industry, it comes at the expense of food production.

“Cocoa fetches more money without necessarily working hard; you harvest every after two weeks. Now communities have abandoned food production, that’s why food is very expensive in Bundibugyo yet we have good climate and fertile soils. The land, which is devoted to food crops is very minimal. Therefore, much of the income from cocoa is allocated to buying food. All the food consumed here is imported from Kabarole and DR Congo,” he adds.

A 2014 report from Swiss Contact on food security indicates 83 per cent of the households have access to farm land but 62 per cent buy food every week. This warns of a looming food insecurity crisis. Of the 15 sub counties in the district, the report shows, the prevalence is high in Bubukwanga, Kasitu, Ntotoro, Mirambi, Busaru, Bubandi, and Bundibugyo and Nyahuka Town Councils.

Dilemma of cash crop boom versues decline in food production

In 2012, Bundibugyo District proposed a bye law to enhance production of food. It requires families to grow food commensurate to cocoa, have kitchen gardens, a minimum number of fruit trees and animals. However, this is yet to become law as is still being scrutinised by the office of the Attorney General.

Hakim Mwesige, the district speaker, says, “Farmers have tended to do entreprises they cannot eat. We have a food security crisis. We believe with this law in place, authorities will have powers to prosecute anyone for lack of food in their home to feed their children.”

Government interventions in line with food security was originally under Naads. Edmund Bishaka, district production officer, says Bundibugyo used to receive about Shs200m for food security interventions but with the launch of Operation Wealth Creation under the UPDF. Naads program focuses on commercial farming technologies.
“There is a shift from the original food security interventions, the current indicative planning figure under the local revenue component for food security is just about Shs1.5m a year. This calls for a lot of radical adjustments,” Bishaka says.

The district experienced famine in 2005, 2007, 2008, 2009 and 2013. February-April and July-September are typically the months of food shortages.

In 2012, Swiss Contact launched a project to promote both cocoa and food production. It seeks to reduce poverty, increase incomes and sustainable livelihoods of at least 15,000 farmers and other value chain actors within the cocoa market systems.

The specific focus is to facilitate cocoa farmers, processors and micro-enterprises to access productivity-enhancing technologies and markets for their products. “In the 1990s, cocoa growing was more like growing yams but with trade liberalisation, more companies entered the market and hence increasing cocoa prices,” notes Mwesige.

The major companies involved in the cocoa trade are: Esco Uganda Ltd, Olam Uganda Ltd, Bricam, ICAM Chocolate, UgaDen, Bakwanye Company Ltd. These have pushed the prices to the skies and more are entering the market. This is from a range of Shs200-Shs500 for a kilogramme of cocoa in 1997. Currently, Shs90b is the estimated value of cocoa that was traded in Bundibugyo in 2013/2014.