How Luweero women are 'freeing' themselves

Discomfort of producing crops but having no say in setting prices has lingered in Esther Nanyondo’s mind for the past eight years.
Nanyondo, a farmer in Luweero District, has since 2013, increased her maize per season from 1,000 kilogrammes to 2,500 kilogrammes as of last season to increase her income. But this has almost been in vain.

“The more you produce, the lower the prices. It is like the middlemen connive to make us poorer each passing day,” Nanyondo, the mother of five, says.

During harvest season, a kilo of maize goes for between Shs300 and Shs500 despite the price of maize flour hovering in ranges of Shs1,200 to Shs1,800 depending where you buy.

She says it is not news in Luweero to find a farmer getting money in advance from unscrupulous middlemen to cover cultivation costs and recall their loan in form of produce after the harvesting.
“The moment you get their money, they decide to take your produce at whatever price they want,” Ms Nanyondo adds.

Nanyondo’s discomfort yet with no limited option is shared by many women in the agricultural rural district of Luweero despite being near the capital, Kampala with ready market.

“There are many intermediaries here,” Ms Prossy Najjuka, another farmer from Bukabika Development Group, in the same district says.
But the women’s cries are about to change as a the Luweero women’s Agro -traders Co-operative, says it was unfair for middlemen to exploit agriculture producers by giving low prices not even enough to cover farm inputs. An association of women groups dealing in production, trade and processing of agricultural produce has been formed.

The cooperative union has a Warehouse specifically to store women’s produce and a Women’s Marketing and Information Centre to market the produce.

It was set up by the Eastern African Sub-Regional Support Initiative for the Advancement of Women (EASSI), a regional non-government organisation advancing women’s issues at a cost of Shs50m. The Centre is equipped with equipment that aids in packaging and measurement of products.

“It is women who do almost everything in agriculture but their reward is not worth it,”Marren-Akatsa-Bukachi, the EASSI executive director, said last week at Agali Awamu House in Kasana Luweero, where the centre is located.

Bukachi, before handing over a Shs10m cheque to kick-start the operations of the cooperative, said: “With this centre, women will store their crops as we look for better prices within the country and across the region,” Bukachi said adding that there is ready market for the produce but selling in small amounts cannot attract big buyers from neighbouring countries.

“We also continue to train women in agriculture value-addition, post-harvest handling and quality standards,” she added.
The cooperative will enable women bring all their produce together and sell to a buyer in bulk which in turn will help bargain better prices.

A crop cultivated by a farmer in most cases goes through several middlemen before it reaches its final consumer.
In that process, despite incurring most farm inputs, they are the least to benefit from their sweat.

The women’s cooperative will be amalgamated with the available women’s groups in the district
So far, there are 26 business women groups all involved in value addition from at least 13 of the 17 sub-counties that makeup Luweero District with each group having between 20 and 45 members.
Bajjabasaaga Women Group which cultivates orange sweet potato, a starchy sweet-tasting tuberous plant, rich in vitamin C for juice processing and cakes is already on the market.

Ms Jowelia Ssekiyanja, the chairperson, Bajjabasaaga Women Group, explains that the orange fleshed sweet potato variety has many products which are processed from both the leaves and the storage roots although the most marketed juice is processed from the storage roots.

The roots are washed before the smashing process. Smashing can be done using a locally made motor but for Bajjabasaaga group, a smashing machine was purchased to lessen the labour burden.
The mashed potato is put through a sieve and warm water is added to ensure the liquid from the sieve gets into a clean mineral bottle water –like pack that costs Shs1,500.