Moses Murungi, the District Agricutural Officer, speaking to Kiboota-Katebwa Coffee Farmers Cooperative Society members

 Farmers in Bunyangabu District have appreciated the impact the Agriculture Cluster Development Project (ACDP) has had on their lives.

 

During a series of monitoring visits by the district political leaders and technical staff to their cooperatives, the farmers revealed that ACDP is not only track but also greatly improving their lives and increasing their household income.

 

For instance, at the Kyanga Maize Mill that is operated by PWDs, it was observed that beneficiaries were earning handsomely from the cooperative, which was enabling them to meet their obligations like educating their children and ensuring food security among others.

With a membership of 784 farmers, Kabonero Mountainous Coffee Cooperative Society said it has a turnover of Shs 600million per annum. These are engaged in the complete coffee value chain from growing to processing it for local consumption and export. 

Relatedly, Kiboota-Katebwa Coffee Farmer Cooperative Society in Katebwa Sub County has 662 members. It got shs146million for Processing Machines from government plus Shs 58million for the structure. Their manager, Mr Samuel Muhindo said their annual turnover was close to Shs 100 million and were hopeful that as the cooperative grows, they will make more money and transform their lives and communities at large.
 

Mr Muhindo, however, noted that they were facing some challenges like pests and diseases, lack of bulking store and the weather was not favoring timely drying. So, he requested for solar driers.
 

In response, Mr Moses Murungi, the District Agricultural Officer, promised to liaise with Uganda Coffee Development Authority (UCDA) and other partners to find a solution. 

 

The video below was published by NTV during their tour of the project in Tooro Sub region

 

 

For his part, the Deputy RDC Bunyangabu, Mr Robert Nuwamanya, challenged the cooperative to prioritize branding their products and ensuring they are accessible on the local market within the district so as to attract other members and also increase on their sales.

The monitoring was concluded with a visit to the 17km that costed around Shs 1 billion to ease access to market.

 

 

ABOUT THE AGRICULTURE CLUSTER DEVELOPMENT PROJECT

 The Agriculture Cluster Development Project (ACDP) is a partnership project of the Ministry of Agriculture, Animal Industry and Fisheries and the World Bank, financed by the International Development Assistance (IDA) of the World Bank. The Project was declared effective on January 23, 2017.

 
Project Development Objective (PDO)

To raise on-farm productivity, production, and marketable volumes of selected agricultural commodities (maize, beans, rice, cassava and coffee), in specified (12) geographic clusters (spanning over 57 districts).

 

The project is hinged on the following components:

 COMPONENT 1: Support for Intensification of On-Farm Production

 Subcomponent 1.1: e-voucher program

 Subcomponent 1.2: Capacity Building for Target Beneficiaries

 Subcomponent 1.3: Support development of Agricultural Input markets

 

COMPONENT 2: Value Addition and Market Access

 Subcomponent 2.1: Capacity Building for Producer Organizations and other Value Chain Actors

 Subcomponent 2.2: ACCE-level Warehousing, Value addition and Marketing

 Subcomponent 2.3: Farm Access Roads and Choke Points at Community Level

 

COMPONENT 3: Policy, Regulatory and Institutional Support

 Subcomponent 3.1: Policy and Regulatory Functions

 Subcomponent 3.2: Agricultural Water Management Investments

 Subcomponent 3.3: Agricultural Statistics

 Subcomponent 3.4: Fall Army Worm Management

 

COMPONENT 4: Coordination and Management, and ICT Platform

 Subcomponent 4.1: National, Cluster and District Coordination

 Subcomponent 4.2: Monitoring and Evaluation and Impact Evaluation

 Subcomponent 4.3: Web-based, Geo-tagged ICT Platforms.

 The project is aligned to the key Agriculture Sector objectives as contained in the Agriculture Sector Strategic Plan (ASSP) and the National Development Plan II (NDP II). Its components operationalize three sector specific objectives of:

 

• To increase production and productivity of agricultural commodities and enterprises;
• To increase access to critical farm inputs;
• To improve access to markets and value addition and strengthen the quality of agricultural commodities, and;
• To strengthen the agricultural services institutions and enabling environment