Taking a leap: Supporting farmers for better yields and links to markets

An extension officer talking to a farmer during a field visits. A major aspect of the programme is to build a robust chain from farm to market involving all the players. PHOTO BY Dorothy Nakaweesi

“This year, I harvested 240 bags of barley from 22 acres and earned Shs26m compared to Shs11m I earned from eight acres last year. I was wise to harvest before the rains started. This helped me improve the yields significantly thus boosting my income,” narrates Boniface Muneria, 61, a barley farmer in Bukwo District.

“I planted on time, administered inputs on time and harvested on time. This explains the bumper harvest.”
Muneria started growing barley in 2011. “I started with seven acres because I was not sure of the market. I harvested 50 bags using rudimentary methods. My entire household would go to the fields with hoes, sickles and willows. We did not know about tractors and combine harvesters.”

Better prices, stable markets
Farmers in Bukwo District have been involved in smallholder farming thus limiting adoption to modern means of farming.
But to increase in acreage, the famers have taken to mechanised farming thus improving yields and reducing post-harvest losses.
Their main cash crops are maize, wheat and barley. Farmers say they opted for the latter because of the ready market and stable prices.

Barley is used as a main ingredient in the manufacture of beer.
“People here were growing maize and wheat but the prices were low and unstable. In 1992, a beer-making firm introduced barley growing to Sebei region but that firm did not stay long because Bukwo is a hard to reach area,” Muneria recalls.

Loyce Chemonges, a widow who embraced barley growing began with three acres in 2012, then expanded to 15 acres in 2013 and 22 acres in 2014 where she earned more than Shs15m after offsetting costs of inputs in one season.

From the proceeds, she has constructed a better house as compared to the one she had three years ago.

Starting out
Like Muneria, Alex Isiagi, 45, a resident of Kachumbala, Bukedea District and a sorghum farmer, shares his story. “I started off as a subsistence farmer living in a small grass-thatched house with my family. My peasant parents’ meagre income could not see me beyond Senior Six. So, I dropped out of school in senior six while at Mbale S.S,” Isiagi recounts.

“So, I joined my parents in agriculture. We grew cotton and maize on the family land but earned so little.”
On realising that maize and cotton were not yielding much, some community members adopted sorghum growing.

His friend, James Michael Ikiso, a businessman in Mbale, encouraged Isiagi to also try sorghum. “I eventually followed his advice to try sorghum in 2004. Within three years, I had realised enough returns to go into commercial farming,” he says.

Making it
“The exposure from the partnership between Nile Breweries, Enterprise Uganda and International Fertiliser Development Centre, went a great way in enhancing my venture.”
With sorghum, Isiagi notes, the farmers were assured of stable prices from Nile Breweries as they use Epuripur, a type of sorghum used as a raw material in making some of its beer brands.

With the proceeds, Isiagi acquired his own land and moved from the family owned one and the other pieces he was renting.
“I own 55 acres; 25 to plant trees and 30 for sorghum,” he shares.

“I am able to meet all my needs. I constructed a house for my parents and, most importantly, afford education for my 10 children—four of whom are in university.”

Among other investments, Isiagi has established the first fuel station in Kachumbala and is constructing a storeyed commercial building in the trading centre.

Partnerships
Isiagi, Chemonges and Muneria are among more than 20,000 farmers from 20 districts who are beneficiaries of the Local and Enterprise Agriculture Programme (Leap), where locally produced commodities like sorghum, barley and maize are used as raw materials in commercial brewing of beer.

Leap is a partnership between the government and Nile Breweries, which has nurtured a robust sorghum and barley farming chain. This is due to a progressive tax policy to support the use of local raw materials.

Win-win
Under this, beer brewed from locally grown sorghum, for instance, is charged 20 per cent excise tax as compared to 60 per cent for beer brewed from imported raw materials.

“This has created a win-win situation for government, farmers, consumers and the industry,” says Onapito-Ekomoloit, the corporate affairs director, Nile Breweries.
Sorghum and barley have been the main commodities the company is dealing in directly with the farmers.

At the start, the company gives farmers seeds subsidised at 50 per cent of the open market price.
The crop growing is closely monitored by the company’s agricultural extension officers, who work with the farmers to ensure control of diseases and pests as well as good farming practices.

There are qualified agricultural officers, in place, to help the farmers with extension, trainings and other aspects of the business.

Jacob Opendi, an extension officer in Bukwo, states that the training has gone beyond only staff and has been extended to farmers chosen from various sub-counties.

In addition, the farmers are helped to organise into associations through which they not only grow the crops but also process and supply the produce to the company.

Challenges
Success comes with challenges. Being grains, one of the main ones is the case of weaver birds, which invade the farm during the flowering stage. They destroy the crop and this cuts back on production. In order to curb this problem, members allocate themselves to different gardens and act as scare crows.
The other challenge is the irregular rainfall patterns of less than 400mm that has affected proper growth of the crop.

started small

Bukedea Epuripuri Farmers Association Ltd (Befa) is one of the associations for sorghum farmers in Kachumbala Sub-county, Bukedea District.
It was an initiative of Nile Breweries in conjunction with Enterprise Uganda.

Formed in 2010, it boasts of 350 members, supports 3,000 famers and directly employs 40 people..
Isiagi is the current chairman, Befa. He recalls the humble beginnings.

“I’ve seen this association grow from a rented small one-room as an office to owning a building, warehouse, processing machine, two tractors and four trucks in just three years. All this is a result of hard work, discipline and resilience.” Isiagi says.
“We use our own tools that we have acquired through the savings we contribute as an association to reduce costs in labour and transport during harvesting period. We are also able to borrow money owing to the relationships and trustworthiness we have built with banks.”