Excitement as Luweero farmers unveil product value chain unit

More than 170 farmer associations in the greater Luweero area engaged in commercial farming have the opportunity to add value to their respective farm products before the market at the one stop value chain center for higher profits.

Under the Zirobwe Agaliawamu Agribusiness Training (ZAABTA), the associations dealing in commercial agriculture can now process the produce through the value chain unit that has the state of the art milling and dryer machines for the grain crop and storage of up to 1,100 tons of the farmer produce.

While the associations spread through the districts of Luweero, Nakasongola, Nakaseke, Kayunga and Mukono have for the past 10 years engaged the members in agribusiness related activity targeting value addition as a marketing strategy, the investment in acquiring modern milling facilities and the dryer to help check the Aflatoxin will boost the value chain for the rice, maize, beans and the soya bean crop that the farmers produce for the market.

“We are able to complete the whole value chain for the maize and rice crops. Our breakthrough started when President Museveni donated to us a maize mill in 2010. We have over the years built our capacity and acquired the state of the art milling machines targeting whole chain production for the grain crops,” Mr Godfrey Mayambala, the General Manager at ZAABTA told a visiting team from the Presidential chief executive officers forum Sunday.

He added that the high value grain dryer is the recent of the other machinery that has boosted their capacity to only process the dry and tested grain.

“Our target as commercial farming associations has always been to penetrate the value chain system for both quality and higher profits. The training of our member associations on post-harvest handling and our capacity to store and process the produce,” he adds.

While the farmers are focused on building the capacity of each of the member associations to invest more in commercial farming, the farmers lack the cold chain rooms, refrigerated vans for the Horticulture section that has attracted the youthful population, the farmers revealed.

Ms Joyce Namutidde who has been member of the ZAABTA for the last 18 years said the farmer associations have taken on the role model approach through championing commercial farming while extending farm knowledge to farmers that are not for commercial production. We also encourage and deal in savings and credit as one way of sustaining our activities.

But Ms Brenda Tibamwenda, a board member at the Presidential CEOs Forum who represented Ms Barbra Mulwana, the board chairperson at the Presidential CEOs Forum rallied the farmer association farmers to encourage the youth to gain the farming skills that have helped transform the more than 170 farmer associations.

“It is surprising that the Country has organized farmer associations that have ideas and activities greatly impacting on the farming World. The farmer associations have something to show to the Country that commercial farming is possible," she told the farmers.

About the value chain facilities at ZAABTA and benefits;

Equipping farmers with market information, offer training, extension services and deal in rice processing, maize, beans, coffee, pineapples, horticulture, commodity harvest, storage and milling for the member associations but the services are available for higher for nonmember associations that seek to higher the machinery among other services.

The grain dryer has the capacity to dry 15 tons of grain per every five hours. The modern rice mill has the capacity to process 2 tons per hour while the maize mill has the capacity to process 2 tons of maize per hour.

The farmers are in the final stage of procuring a modern coffee processing plant to tap into the coffee market. Our system that has been growing for the last 18 years is a change agent. We want to remain a role model as a farmer organization with a difference, Mr Ismail Kaliba the General Secretary at Kaliba revealed.