Teso farmers get grain grading machines

Farmers and traders inspect their grain which has been graded at Omaria Mills in Soroti. PHOTO BY SIMON PETER EMWAMU 

Farmers in Teso sub-region have been boosted with installation of cereals grading machinery under a World Bank grant extended to large commercial producers and traders.

The scheme aims to ensure that at the post-harvest handling stage, cereals are graded to the accepted standards in the global markets.

This is intended to aid farmers and dealers in cereals to grade their grains for highly priced markets as opposed to having ungraded grains. The machines, which are already operational, are based in Soroti Town.

They can grade more than four metric tonnes of cereals per hour ranging from simsim, sorghum, maize to green grade maize and peas, among others.
According to Emmanuel Asiimwe, the sales manager, Alvan Blanch, a UK-based manufacturer of the equipment, the cereals are graded to a globally accepted standards.

He adds that they can also correct the effects of poor post-harvest practices which leave most cereals in a bad state.

This is a major issue around the Great Lakes Region that World Bank in partnership with Alvan Blanch are working on. Besides having the grains ready for export, the graded grains, especially groundnuts, green gram and simsim, have longer shelf life.

Also, the World Bank grants can be extended to any potential commercial farmer and buyer who can produce and supply the required quantities of grains when needed, including in times of food scarcity and refugee crisis.

Asiimwe adds that farmers can make better use of the grading machines to add value to their grains for better prices than they are offered on the open market.

“We are going to install the same machines at Akuku in Soroti whose capacity will be about 90 metric tonnes per hour. There will be storage capacities for every grain graded for better post-harvest handling,” he says.

The farmers will be charged an amount of money to store their produce in silos for better prices at the appropriate times.

“Similarly, we encourage small-scale farmers to form cooperatives to enable them lobby for these grants. All is needed is premises for the machines with a guarantee that the cooperatives can supply the needed grains.”

To illustrate the point of available opportunities, Asiimwe hints at a requirement of 1,000 metric tonnes of graded red sorghum, which none has shown capability of supplying the quantities needed.