By Vision Reporter
Elgon Cooperative Union has been hailed for it’s contribution towards coffee growing at the Best Farmers Awards at Vision Group head offices in Kampala today ( December, 11).
At the height of cheating of smallholder Arabica coffee farmers in the remote countryside of Bududa district, 12 years ago, it took a humble but contemplative and brave smallholder farmer to lead others in turning things around.
Godfrey Bwaya (62) from Bungara, Kikholo sub-county, in Bududa district, then, mobilised farmers and simply asked them to stop forthwith selling their raw produce individually to whoever walked in their courtyard seeking to buy coffee.
He would implore the farmer community from the same locality to adopt a model of forming small farmer groups of not less than 10 members.
“The trick, then, yielded instant positive results, for to begin with it strengthened the farmer’s bargaining power. Slowly but steadily the model has since redeemed the smallholder farmer community here from exploitation from brokers and middlemen. The farm gate price of the produce has since registered a progressive upward trend,“ observes Bwaya, also the founder chairperson of Elgon Farmer’s Cooperative Union Ltd, in Bududa district.
Over the years, the once smallholder farmer groups have evolved into primary farmer cooperative societies that now feed the cooperative union.
Today the cooperative union boasts of a membership of 1, 650 smallholder farmers drawn from 12 sub-counties alone in Bududa district.
The volume of coffee production has scaled up from previously a paltry 900,000kg to between 2.9-3.1 million kg of patched Arabica coffee, a season.
The cooperative is relatively financially grounded as the farmer membership remittance portfolio averagely stands at sh600 million from which members could access credit at a modest interest rate.
This is the ninth year running that Vision Group, together with the Embassy of the Netherlands, KLM Airlines, dfcu Bank and Koudijs Animal Nutrition, are running the Best Farmers competition. The 2024 competition run from March to November, culminating in today’s awards ceremony.
LEAD PHOTO CAPTION: Elgon Cooperative Union receiving their award at the 2024 Best Farmers Awards. Photos by Moses Nsubuga
