By Joshua Kato
According to the best farmers’ judges report 2023, the agriculture sector has recorded tremendous progress in the years since the competition was launched in 2014.
However, whereas there is progress in value addition, usage of good inputs and market reach, farmers are still faced with challenges. These include land issues, family disagreements, bank loans, poor infrastructure, low extension and even politics.
The judges released this report during the award ceremony of the 2023 best farmers on December 14, at Vision Group offices, Kampala. The 2023 edition was the ninth of the competition.
This year, 621 nominations were received, 189 profiled and 103 visited by the judges. Out of these, 13 winners were picked last Thursday. Since 2014, about 2,000 farmers have been profiled and out of these, 108 winners have been selected.
The competition is organised by Vision Group with support from the Embassy of the Kingdom of the Netherlands, dfcu Bank, KLM Airlines and Koudjis Nutrition BV. Overall, the judges’ observations paint both a positive picture of the agriculture sector and challenges.
“As we move around to visit and judge the competitors, what we see mirrors the actual status of the agriculture sector,” the chief judge, Victoria Ssekitoleko, says.
These included poor roads, poor financial access, land wrangles affecting farming and low value addition. The positives included visibly larger investment by especially educated farmers, improved value addition and access to markets.
Poor roads
Between November 10 and 30, when the judges traversed the country looking for the best farmers, the country faced heavy rains.
“Harvesting seasonal crops had started and certainly farmers wanted easy transportation of their products to the market, but the roads were bad,” Ssekitoleko observed.
Save for the highways, most feeder roads are currently impassable across the country. In Luwero, for example, judges had to pass through the Luwero-Kikubanimba-Kiwoko-Butalangu road to reach Muhawiya Mukasa’s farm near Kapeeka.
“Some areas had water flowing across the road,” she said. This was the same story across the country.
“We wasted a lot of time in Kyenjojo and Kabarole because of the bad road network. When we talked to farmers, they admitted making losses because of the bad roads,” Patrice Ocunguworth, another judge, said.
The Government blames the poor state of roads on the heavy rains.
Extension services lacking
“When we moved around the country, we hardly heard a farmer claim that he was assisted by a government extension worker,” Ssekitoleko said.
Farmers pointed out that they are farming in the dark.
“I have not seen a government extension worker for months,” one of the farmers told the judges.
The farmers said although extension workers exist at the district and sub-counties level, they are too few to reach everybody. As a result, most farmers depend on peer knowledge to practice farming.
“I visit fellow farmers and masterclasses organised by companies like New Vision to learn,” Paul Owor, a winner from Tororo, explained.
The judges recommended that while government works to improve the reach of extension workers, using model farmers, including Vision Group’s best farmers, as peer trainers should be encouraged.
“Let the Government authorise private farmers, but with knowledge to supplement its efforts in extension,” advised Ssekitoleko.
Indeed, there are best farmers among the winners offering extension knowledge to peers in their locality. These include Martin Kananura from Mbarara, who is also the overall winner;
Henry Lugolobi from Namulonge, who was the first runner-up and Rutah Sebastian Ngambwa, who was the second runner-up. Some of the trainings are free of charge.
In reaction, the agriculture ministry permanent secretary, Maj. Gen. David Kasura, who was also the chief guest during the awards, said the Government is gradually working towards solving this challenge.
“We have been recruiting extension workers over the last three years and the numbers are going up,” he said.
According to the agriculture ministry, there are about 6,000 extension workers, against a basic need of about 11,000.
Financing/insurance elusive
According to the judges, there has been an improvement in farmers’ access to finance compared to previous years.
“This time round, we found farmers who have accessed funding and are banking with major banks,” Ssekitoleko said.
But even then, most of the farmers still find it hard to get development finance.
“Some of those, who have got it are struggling to pay because of the high interest and other farming-related challenges,” Ssekitoleko said.
In some cases, there are even some best farmers, whose farms are under threat of being taken over by banks over unpaid loans.
“Farmers who dare go to the banks acquire loan facilities at commercial rates, some of which are as high as 23% per year or in worse cases 3% per month, which makes it 36% per year,” Ssekitoleko said. She further emphasised the lack of loans that are attached to the farming seasons.
“With loans from commercial banks, one is supposed to repay monthly,” she said.
However, harvesting is not done monthly, but two times a year, in most cases. Until we get a specific bank where farmers can go and get financing, agriculture will not develop.
“Should we call for a specific farmer’s bank?” Ssekitoleko wondered.
The judges also wondered why a farmer with a sh10m cow cannot seek insurance for it.
“When this animal dies, it is a big loss for the farmer,” she said.
However, dfcu Bank managing director Charles Muduwa pointed out that with the Agricultural Credit Facility (ACF) in place, there is no need for farmers to cry out.
“We cannot deny the fact that farming is a risky business. But all we need is to understand farmers and help them do the business with less risks. For example, a cow does not know it is a weekend or even a public holiday, it will need feeds and will produce milk, but some fi nance institutions are closed during these days and to a farmer, that does not make business sense,” he says.
In addition, dfcu Bank is among the banks implementing the agricultural credit facility programme from the Bank of Uganda, where farmers can access fi nancing at a maximum of 12%.
“This is cheap money, which is available and farmers have not come to request for it,” he says.
Kasura pointed out that fi nancing farmers was still a challenge, but there are measures to ease it. ACF is a government initiative to help farmers easily access loans at lower rates than the commercial ones.
“Farmers should not fear visiting any bank with ACF to access this money,” he said.
Kasura also emphasised that there are other initiatives for small scale farmers, including the Parish Development Model (PDM) and Emyooga.
“Farmers should also learn to form cooperatives, because this can also ease their access to funds,” he said.
Post-harvest handling
Although over 10 of the winners exhibited good post-harvest practices, majority sold their produce raw. This is the common practice countrywide. For example, only Kananura, Lugolobi, Pamela Bakabulindi, Phoebe Kagambe, Ngambwa added value to their products before sending it to the market, many others sold produce raw. The judges indicated that post-harvest handling challenges still persist across the country.
“There are still farmers who dry coffee and maize on the ground,” Augustine Mwendya, one of the judges, said.
South Sudan only recently re-allowed Ugandan maize to enter the country after months of suspension due to alleged contamination by afl atoxins. These are toxic elements that are produced by certain types of fungi and can infect agricultural commodities and make food inedible.
These are due to poor post-harvest handling. Many farmers, including best farmers, sell produce raw due to lack of storage facilities.
“The reason why farmers sell their produce soon after harvesting is because they do not have dependable storage facilities,” observed Mwendya, one of the judges.
Setting up these structures is not rocket science. Storage facilities come in two main systems, the cold room that should safeguard produce that is highly perishable and silos for storing cereals.
These can be set up in each major crop production area and at all exit points. For example, storage facilities for fruits can be set up in Teso, which is the main source of mangoes and oranges.
Across all milk producing areas, cereals storage facilities can be set up in places like Kapchorwa and Kibaale/Kagadi/Mubende, Amuru and Nwoya districts. Tumwebaze pointed out that the Government has this in mind under the agri-industrialisation programme.
“We have been opening up storage facilities and processing units in various parts of the country and this process will continue,” he said.
More needed mechanisation
Out of the 103 farmers visited by judges, at least 20 had tractors on their farms or some level of mechanisation. These included Rutah Ngambwa and Martin Kananura in Mbarara; Phoebe Kagambe in Kyenjojo, Joseph Kato in Buwama, Henry Lugolobi in Namulonge and Dr Esther Nakajubi in Kasanje.
“I use it to prepare the farm for planting and processing silage for my animals,” Ngambwa says.
Farmers need tractors to move to the next level of production. Tractors are certainly expensive for farmers. A brand new 2WD tractor costs sh100m, with implements.
However, second-hand imported tractors cost about sh50m. During the awards, Kasura further reiterated the need for tractors.
dfcu Bank, one of the sponsors, added: “Farmers without collateral can acquire the equipment under different financing schemes, including using the tractor,” says dfcu Bank managing director, Charles Muduwa.
All that farmers need to do is visit the bank for more details. The Government has also waived taxes on tractors.
Water for production
“There is no way we can continue with commercialising agriculture without irrigation,” Ssekitoleko observed.
Out of the 13 winners, 12 had a water source on the farm. Kananura, Ngambwa, Kagambe have water dams, while Akello, Lugolobi harvest a lot of water off the roofs of their farm structures.
Increase in value addition
Value addition is the big leap to better farm earnings. However, a closer check of the hundreds of other farmers who took part in this year’s best farmers competition shows that while some are adding value, a big percentage of Ugandan farmers are yet to embrace value addition.
Judges visited farmers who were adding value to crops. These included on maize, dairy, coffee and fruits. Value addition on agriculture products accounts for over 35% of the processing in Uganda, however for the small farmer, most of their produce is still sold as raw food.
According to the agriculture ministry, there is a big move to help farmers add value.
“The Government shall promote the use of local materials and by-products of maize, soybean, cotton, sunflower, wheat and rice, in the fast-growing animal feeds industry,” a government paper says.
However, most of these efforts are painfully slow in bearing fruit, leading farmers to make losses, and yet for most medium size dairy farmers, for example, value adding machinery for processing milk into yoghurt, cheese and packaging requires sh10m-sh200m, the same for fruits, beef and honey.
Cereals mills cost from as low as sh4m. With a good agriculture financing facility, that money can easily be got.
