Farmer’s Diary: How value addition can earn you more money
Emmanuel Kakooza (right) and colleague David Ssekyewa turning fruits into juice. PHOTO BY MICHAEL J. SSALI
Quite often farmers get disappointed when selling agricultural products in raw form soon after harvest because it tends to fetch little income. Most of the products are harvested during particular seasons of the year when nearly all the farmers have the same items in plenty. The crop prices tend to drop as demand decreases and as the farmers compete with one another to sell off the surplus before the crops go bad. Traders have to be cautious buying the items from the farmers, usually limiting their purchase to only what they can handle.
Raw agricultural products are perishable and require very careful handling, especially during transportation from the farms to the markets that may be hundreds of miles away. The traders have to ensure that whatever they purchase will be in good and saleable condition by the time they get to the markets. Between the farm and the market, as well as all the time the fruits will lie on the stalls, there are several factors that cause raw food spoilage mainly categorised as chemical, biological, and physical, which both the farmer and the trader have to worry about.
When fruits such as oranges are harvested they undergo some chemical breakdown as time passes, leading to objectionable appearance and taste. On their way to the market, fruits like mangoes may get bruised or crushed and become unattractive to the customer. Some fruits like pawpaws or ripe bananas are vulnerable to rat attack, which makes them unfit for human consumption. Pests and vermin render raw food susceptible to microbial invasion and risky to eat. Yet most small scale farmers and traders have no storage facilities for raw agricultural products and therefore cannot wait to sell later at better prices when demand rises!
It is however such hardships and challenges that form the basis on which some entrepreneurs build thriving businesses. To them the hardships and challenges turn out to be an opportunity for job creation and a springboard for research and other ventures. 28-year-old Emmanuel Kakooza, who graduated from Kyambogo University with a degree in Human Nutrition and Dietetics in 2007, was quick to observe that often farmers and traders get stuck with excess fruits and has now turned to simple food processing and preservation to earn some extra money. An employee of Masaka Diocesan Development Organisation (Maddo) in the Primary Health Care Department, he is aware of the continuous need for fruit consumption even during times of scarcity. He contends that during off season periods, people can still get fruits with all their nutrients in form of well preserved bottled juice. “Fruit juice is helpful in health management and reduction of the disease burden,” he says. “It helps to prevent indigestion and constipation and it is the best medicine for flu as well as management of some cancers, sinus infections and stress. It is good too for teeth strengthening. The fruits can also be used to make wine, which if consumed in the right amounts, facilitates digestion and other body functions.” He has employed a colleague, David Ssekyewa, and together they purchase the fruits from the farmers to make wine and fruit juice.
He said the beginning was quite tough. His first venture was to spend Shs1,600 on a kilo of rice which he pounded into flour before packaging it and persuading people to buy it and enjoy “the wonderful rice flour porridge”. He also tried packaging fresh pawpaw, pineapple and water melon chips and selling them to school canteen owners. He made some profit and with time he went into wine making, selling it to Good Samaritan Supermarket in Masaka Town. It is the sale of wine that helped him to raise most of the money that he needed to purchase the stainless steel equipment and tools he now uses for fruit juice making. No sugar is added to his fruit juice, labelled Organic Fruit Juice, and has a shelf life of one year. It is a mixture of eight different fruits including tangerines, paw-paws, pineapples, water melon, mangoes, passion fruit, oranges and lemons. The business is still housed in two rented rooms in Nyendo-Ssenyange Division where in a day about 100 bottles of juice can be prepared. He prepares both large and small bottles. The 275 ml bottle costs Shs1,800 while the bigger bottle of 700ml costs Shs3,500. Production, as he said, depends on demand and it is not every day that he must produce the juice.
“Consumption is limited and hampered by lack of premises where customers can reliably find the product,” he revealed. He therefore envisions taking up business premises in some prime location in Masaka Town, most probably at Muto Complex, in the not so distant future. When crop prices are low, the farmer could still think a little harder for a way out. Value addition could well be the answer.
