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NEED AND JUSTIFICATION FOR THE FARMERS’ STORAGE HOUSE

 

Ugandans are farmers. Every household has a garden and grows crops every year. In Namutumba District 96% of the population are subsistence farmers. The district has a poor road network, almost no electricity, and people live in small round mud huts with grass- thatched roofs where they cannot store their produce and sleep at the same time (see photo).

 

Also, the families are very large; usually about ten members living in one room, which makes storage services very hard for them during harvest, and hence they must sell their produce quickly and at reduced prices. This has also caused constant food shortages as they do not have space for storage. Besides, there are also pests like rats and weevils that destroy agricultural produce making it hard for farmers to keep it for a long period of time, leading to poverty, famine, and health problems.  

 

The above challenges are what the Namutumba Abayudaya Community seeks to address.

Farming and Agriculture

Vision

To lay the groundwork for empowering our farmers through cooperative agricultural enterprises and collective bargaining strategies to help them to more  effectively market their produce and receive higher prices.      

 

Mission 

To help the farmers fight poverty through providing better storage services for their produce during harvest  time where prices fluctuate, and also to lift farmers’ voices to demand higher pay.

 

Objectives

To store the farmers' produce during harvest time and look for markets communally, thereby commanding a better price.

 

To develop a “food security culture” for the community members.

 

To create a common voice in pricing of the produce and marketing.

 

To set an example of cooperative agriculture as a model for our neighboring communities to follow. 

 

To have a progressive development idea of future packaging and nationial and international sales.

 

To improve future productivity as farmers' confidence levels increase  as a result of tangible agricultural advances in the community.

 

Type of farmers' storehouse needed

We need to provide a farmers’  storehouse that will hold a minimum of 100,000 tons. These will be of different crops, like maize, coffee, millet, sorghum, groundnuts, rice, cotton, cassava and many others.  The warehouse will have one big room for storage and two small rooms for offices.

 

Source of funds

  • Donations

  • Grants

  • Direct monetary contributions by farmers when possible

 

Contributions from the community members

  • Community members will provide labor during the construction

  • Planning and implementation of the project.  

  • Monitoring the project throughout its duration.

  • Sustaining the project through contributions

 

Monitoring and evaluation

Farmers' committee and other community members will be in charge of the project implementation and monitoring of all operations, and will perform periodic evaluations and make changes in line with the goals and  objectives of the project.

 

Yoash Mayende will draft reports to donors at the end of every six months. He will be in frequent contact with donors for advice and to assess the progress of the project

 

 

 

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