Together We Stand

[ 126 ] early 2000s, almost the entire country’s milk supply was routed through cooperatives created by the Government, and they provided vital services such as vaccination, animal health and genetic improvement to their members. Today, there are various types of dairy farmer groups in Uganda. These include individual farmers organized in farmers’ groups at parish level, headed by Parish Executive Committees (PECs); special interest groups; women’s groups; youth groups; community-based organizations and non-governmental organ- izations. Most of these are registered under one umbrella in a region, in order to access services. All are affiliated to the Uganda National Farmers’ Federation, which is the national umbrella for farmers’ organizations. These groups and asso- ciation have organized themselves to influence the supply and demand of the dairy industry sector. Most farmers’ groups have installed machines/coolers to chill the milk. They influ- ence standards as well as market conditions. These cooperatives supply milk to formal (pasteurized) as well as informal (chilled milk) channels and sell some milk locally. In order to improve rural milk collection and marketing infrastructure the Diary Development Authority (DDA), in partnership with donor agencies, has been rehabilitating the milk collection infrastructure in a phased manner. More specifically the DDA, in partnership with the AfDB-IsDB funded CAIIP, has distributed 37 milk coolers to 14 districts: Rakai, Lyantonde, Sembabule, Kibaale, Mubende, Kamuli, Kaliro, Namutamba, Pallisa, Budaka, Bududa, Sironko, Kapchorwa and Bukwo. More than 1,078 farmers have so far been trained in animal feeding technologies, hygienic milk production and handling, record keeping and business skills. Seventy-four ice cream and cheese processors have been trained in dairy regulations and standards and 399 raw milk traders have been trained in milk hygiene and testing and business skills in order to reduce post-harvest losses at household and farm levels. The Mbarara District Farmers’ Association (MBADIFA) is a success story in the region as the organization is closely engaged with smallholder farmers in the district of Mbarara. Individual farmers are organized in farmers’ groups at parish level, headed by PECs in order to access services. The success of MBADIFA is largely attributed to the following: • Vision of inclusion — involving all the members (farmers) at all levels, which inculcates ownership principles and stimulates creativity • Setting up demonstration farms and extension services for disseminating knowledge, information and skills to other members of the association • Monitoring and evaluation of the activities of the association • Scaling up the activities of the association • Promoting values of transparency and accountability • Regular coordination and meetings • Practice training with demonstrations • Participatory agro-enterprise development • Timely planning, implementation and reporting. MBADIFA has organizational structures in operation from the grass roots up to the district level. It has all the operational systems planned for the programme in place. The Uganda Crane Creameries Cooperative Union (UCCCU) is another success story. It was established in 2005 with support from the European Union, to serve the dairy farmers in the south-western part of Uganda. It is affiliated to MBADIFA. UCCCU responded to farmers’ needs including low access to modern production tech- nologies to increase yields, low prices and so on. It is now a The role of farmers’ organizations in driving the development of Africa’s agricultural sector has increased over the years Hope, optimism and inclusion are essential to building the resilience of farmers’ organizations in post-conflict, fragile situations Image: Islamic Devlopment Bank Image: Islamic Devlopment Bank T ogether W e S tand