Makerere University Takes the Field

Today we held our first joint field exploration with Makerere University, looking at potential agro-processing projects. It was very encouraging. Over the next couple of months, I will be overseeing the pilot project for Save, utilizing the technical skills (and enthusiasm) of students from one of East Africa’s top schools to promote value chain production. The primary goal is to add value to products such as maize and mangos through post harvest handling and preservation, while building stronger links with both local and national markets.

During my pre-project field visits, this was a primary concern for Save’s farmer groups. While they were able to increase their crop yields in the past few years through a number of initiatives, the farmers found it very difficult to get their raw materials to the market. Because of poor roads, long distances and a breakdown in organization, goods are not commonly bulked, sorted, graded or processed. Many of these basic commodities spoil quickly. Middlemen exploit this situation, offering very low prices for these commodities. Farmers have no other option and have to take the price that is given.

Yesterday I had my first meeting with the students from Makerere. There are six Food/Science and six Information Technology students participating, broken down into three teams of four. They will be working with Save’s Marketing and Livelihood Groups (which are essentially local farmer led organizations) to create a strategy and business plan to address many of these post harvest problems.

Before taking them to the field, I taught an hour and a half module to the students at the University, adapting elements of participatory rural appraisal (PRA) strategies to give them an introduction to conducting focus group and key informant interviews. I went over techniques such as community mapping, Venn diagramming commonalities, prioritizing interests by beneficiary subsets, and transect walks. We then spent the rest of the morning focusing on team building activities with Yousouf and Michael, their mentor-professors.

Today the students were bussed up to Nakasongola. They were given a brief introduction to the concept of Food Security and Save’s operations in the field by Paul, the Agriculture Coordinator. After lunch, we took them to a site in a sub-county called Kalongo, about 40 kms away, where Save has a very active Marketing Group. We first visited a model farm that was experimenting with improved varieties of cassava and coffee. The students seemed very excited to interact with a few of our best farmers one-on-one.

We concluded the day with a large focus group discussion. About 25 members of the local Marketing Group showed up. The majority were older women, dressed in their Sunday best. After letting the group members address recent constraints impeding their farming activities, the students began asking questions. Although much of it was in Luganda (and I had a bit of trouble following along as much went untranslated), the discussion was animated and lively. This is not generally the case in Uganda, as people here can be very reserved and quiet.

The students were very deferential and showed great respect for the knowledge and experience of the farmers, yet offered a host of potential local solutions to many of the problems plaguing the farmers. The farmers loved this, commenting on some, laughing at others, but in the end made a point to state that they really felt that the students were leaving them with a lot to think about.

In the coming week, the students will begin putting together proposals for inexpensive processing projects for a range of available raw materials and create business plans (which will even include their own transport!) At the same time, we will finalize the three Save groups they will work with. The students will then go back to the field in their smaller groups of four to meet with the farmers and begin putting together their projects.