By Joshua Kato
President Yoweri Museveni has consistently called on stakeholders to reduce the sale of unprocessed foods to foreign markets as farmers make a lot of losses.
Museveni uses an example of coffee where after processing, a kilogramme of ready-to-drink coffee costs $40 or sh140,000 in Europe compared to sh3,500, for unprocessed coffee.
You need 2kg of unprocessed coffee to get a kilogramme of refined coffee. Nearly every agricultural product can be improved on the farm.
However, farmers sell over 90% of these in raw form. Value addition does not start with the processing, but at planting. Selecting the best breeds or varieties is the first step.
Then, during management, the practices that you adopt either add value or reduce value. For example, if you use banned or dangerous farm chemicals, you are devaluing your product.
During harvesting and post-harvest activities, farmers should ensure that they follow the right practices so as not damage the product.
Overall, farmers must be assisted to understand value addition, first through sensitisation and then by providing equipment.
