Youth farmers on their way to commercial farming in Uganda
In 2006, 36 young and active farmers decided to work together to get out of poverty. In 2011, they have established a cooperation of 114 active farmers and obtained more than 20,000 Euros through business relations with traders. Here is their story.
@ Trias
Katweyambe Youth Farmer Group (KYF-Group) located in Hoima District in Western Uganda started with 36 youngsters (9 girls and 27 boys), who decided to work together in improving their incomes and food security through farming. They became member of Hoima District Farmers Association (HODFA), which provided them with basic technical advice.
In 2008, HODFA started a programme with Trias aimed at stimulating a business attitude among farmers. At the start, the members were not seeing any tangible benefits from the trainings received and consequently some members left the youth group. But when HODFA organised a market survey (in the capital Kampala), in which some representatives of the youth group participated, benefits became clearer. Based on these surveys and on cost-benefit analyses, the group selected rice and groundnuts as their agricultural enterprises. With information gathered from a market chain analyses, the group defined a marketing strategy and could already interest some potential buyers. They started negotiations with those buyers and slowly developed a business relationship.
They recognized that they needed to improve the quality and quantity of their production in order to maintain this relationship. Through Farmers Participatory Research (supported by Trias and HODFA), members of the group improved their rice production system. This research had another advantage, namely that mutual trust increased between the group members. A group business plan was presented to HOFOKAM, the micro-finance partner in the Trias supported programme, which assisted the group with a loan to boost their production. In 2009, KYF-Group had its first consignment of 7 tons of groundnuts sold to a trader in Kampala. This was a unique experience for the group members and also for the other farmers in the community: they never witnessed such a high volume of produce sold for a very good price and moreover: paid immediately! The total sales mounted to around 4500 euro! In the second season of 2009, KYF-Group was able to have a similar success with rice: 16 tons for a total of about 9000 euro. The high price was obtained, because the group managed to provide good quality rice.
From now on the group’s road to success was clear: in 2010, they sold 9 tons of groundnuts and 29 tons of rice with a total profit of around 7500 Euro. Members of the group now systematically calculate their costs and profits to enable them to negotiate firmly with the buyers. In 2011, the group decided to store their groundnuts and sell at a later time when the prices are more favourable. They carried out their own market surveys and calculations and found out that soya beans are more profitable than rice and groundnuts. During their survey they found a soya bean seed buyer with whom they negotiated a favourable contract.
Other farmer groups were attracted by the success of the KYF-Group and wanted to join them in their collective marketing and internal savings. This has led to the formation of a cooperative consisting of 5 groups with 114 members in total. The cooperative already accumulated a capital of about 2500 euro that is still growing…