Ugandan Mbadifa wins Dutch prize
The Dutch development organisation Agriterra has awarded the Ugandan peasant movement Mbadifa with a prize of 15,000 euros. Mbadifa is one of the 84 partners of Trias.
Secretary of State Knapen hands over a 15,000 euro cheque to Kiwnuka Richard Ntambi, the business manager of Mbadifa.
The manager of Mbadifa received the cheque from Ben Knapen, the Dutch Secretary of State for International Cooperation. With the money Mbadifa is going to open a store where members can buy seeds, fertilizers, crop protection and other agricultural production needs.
The jury consisted of representatives of the Dutch agricultural industry and banking sector. The choice for Mbadifa was unanimous, because of the good market study Mbadifa conducted for the retail project. The intention is to build up the store in different stages. The grow expectations are, according to the jury, realistic.
Mbadifa has around 5,000 members, of which seven out of ten cases are women. 90 per cent of the members are farmers who daily have to put up a struggle against hunger in southwest Uganda. On average the farmers cultivate two hectare, representing an income of five euros per month.
Mbadifa is one of the three peasant movements Trias works with in Uganda. "The last three years, we managed to train 200 local peasant groups of Mbadifa", says Trias employee Peter van Erum. "As a result, farmers learn to look beyond their self-reliance. They discover that farming can be a profitable business on the condition that they work together."