At least 80 percent of Uganda’s 16.5 million-strong workforce relies on agricultural productivity for its livelihood. But perhaps ironically, this workforce also comprises 90 percent of the rural poor. They are subsistence farmers, providing 70 percent of the country’s marketed produce, but for the most part barely producing enough income for their families to survive, much less prosper. According to Kanayo Nwanze, president of the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD), many of these smallholders are net buyers of food, producing what they can for personal consumption, and purchasing the remainder.
Making the situation worse, these smallholder farmers, who often lack access to modern agricultural technologies and training, are responsible for feeding a population that is growing more than 3.2 percent annually. In the article “Down to earth: Sustainable rural transformation,” Nwanze makes the point that these obstacles cannot be overcome by simply teaching smallholders to farm better.
For smallholders – and one might go so far as to say for all farmers – farming is more than an occupation, more than fertilizers, seeds and crop protection products; it is a way of life, beginning in the half-light before dawn and encompassing the whole context (meaning ) of a farmer’s life. For agricultural development to be sustainable, for these smallholders to truly profit – financially and nutritionally – this whole system and context must be taken into account and addressed.
Since 2006, IFDC has employed the Competitive Agricultural Systems and Enterprises (CASE) solution in Sub-Saharan Africa. It has become the cornerstone to the Center’s market development solutions, the ultimate goal being to give farmers the knowledge and tools they need to increase the amount and quality of their crops and to link them to profitable markets for the equitable purchase of their produce. CASE is an all-encompassing systems-solution developed around the creation of crop-specific agribusiness clusters, generally described by the Center as the coordination among various stakeholders at the grassroots level, including smallholder farmers, local entrepreneurs, traders, financial institutions, research and extension services and market information systems. Using lessons learned from Thousands to Millions (1000s+) project (2006-2010) in Sub-Harran Africa, IFDC through CATALIST-Uganda and 2SCALE projects is using the CASE approach as a viable solution to barriers impeding smallholder activities in the nation since 2012.
The CATALIST-Uganda project is employing this systems-based approach to help sustainably commercialize smallholder farmer agriculture through improved productivity and value chain development, resulting in marketable surpluses that raise farm incomes and food security in Uganda. Much of the work conducted by the project is accomplished under the realization of the farming way of life, that smallholder farming cannot be envisaged as a solitary farmer who plants, reaps and sells the produce as a single, unconnected individual. Farming in clusters has – by necessity – become the new definition of “smallholder farming,” differentiating those farmers who are professionally connected from the individual subsistence farmer.
Currently, CATALIST-Uganda is building partnerships with public entities, private enterprises and non-governmental organizations (NGOs) that help the project professionalize smallholder farmers and connect them to viable markets. In professionalizing the farmers, CATALIST-Uganda is forming clusters of farmers around the nation. These clusters, made up of smallholder farmers and key players in a given crop-specific agricultural value chain, gain access to markets as a unit to obtain the best prices possible, whether it is to buy crop inputs or sell their collective crops outputs to buyers.
The CATALIST-Uganda project is also connecting these clusters to specific buyers who offer fair, consistent prices for specific crops. For example, the project recently partnered with Tropical Heat (of Deepa Industries Ltd.) and Kisoro Potato Processing Industries LTD (KPPIL) to increase potato crop production and quality through more efficient production methods.
These companies are working with the project and its potato farming clusters to increase the quality of their production in order to create a regular purchasing relationship. The synergy created ,will encourage farmers to grow higher quality crops and will encourage Tropical Heat to buy from farmers in which they have invested.
Once the project aligns farmers into groups and connects them to buyers (when possible), it ensures that these farmer groups have adequate access to knowledge and training on modern agricultural technologies and practices in order to help improve their yield capacity. This often is accomplished by connecting to community-based organizations (CBOs) and other NGOs who are able to establish and sustain demonstration plots and provide training to farmer groups. Often, successful farmers from previous seasons will take the lead and share their experiences using modern agricultural inputs and techniques.
The benefits of farmers groups
From planting to harvest, farmers involved in cluster activities have been more successful. They are growing more food for their families, getting more of their crops to market and making enough money to secure greater livelihoods for themselves and their families. Truly, success in the world of smallholder farmers is found when the entire context of the smallholder farming experience is recognized and considered in agricultural development plans.
In a 2013 Viewpoint article, “Down to earth: Sustainable rural transformation,” Kanayo Nwanze, president of IFAD noted, “Transformation means not just changing the outcome, but changing the context. Sustainability implies transformation because it must be both ameliorative and preventive at the same time – changing the present, and opening the door to a better and more secure future.” The CATALIST-Uganda project exemplifies this idea; it strives to connect farmers with each other and with others partners, who are all afforded a greater opportunity to improve global, national, local and personal wellbeing. This transformation will require synergistic efforts, but will result in sustainable food security for smallholder farmers now and in the future. By project end, 110,000 smallholder farmers will have sustainably doubled yields and achieved 50 percent increases in incomes
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