BY DAVID MAFABI
KAMPALA
Ugandan grain farmers have for long failed to penetrate markets beyond the region due to poor quality grain coupled with issues of aflatoxins among other challenges.
The East African Grain Council (EAGC) has embarked on a campaign to find solutions to the majority of grain producers’ challenges ranging from difficulty to meet sanitary and phytosanitary standards required to export goods beyond the region including Europe and the United States.
Mr. Paul Ochuna, the EAGC team leader said that the council has started building the capacity of their members and their supply chains in quality for the market and food safety standards by providing the much sought-after Post-Harvest Management training sessions.
He explained that the improved storage and aggregation of grains were on the agenda of the three-day training session organised by the EAGC—targeting cooperatives, agricultural extension, and warehouse workers in Uganda.
“Effective post-harvest handling of crops especially cereals is vital in cutting losses and maximising the volume of crops that smallholder farmers are able to sell,” Mr. Ochuna said at the training session 15 August.
He revealed that training helps rice, maize, and beans farmers in Uganda to sell more products for higher prices to markets across eastern Africa.
This comes at the time governments in Uganda, Kenya, and Tanzania have eased restrictions on the trade of staple crops across common borders and the promotion of trade within eastern Africa is seen as a significant step towards tackling stubborn levels of poverty and malnutrition in the region.
While Tanzania and Uganda usually produce a surplus of staple foods, Kenya only grows enough to feed itself for one year.
Experts say that the relaxation of trading barriers presents an opportunity for Ugandan smallholders to access lucrative Kenyan markets but practical challenges often prevent smallholders from capitalising upon new markets.
“Poorly managed storage and aggregation systems, as well as inefficient post-harvest handling practices, are a major challenge to smallholders looking to penetrate new markets, ” Ochuna said, adding that addressing quality challenges is a major priority for the council at the moment.
The three-day training sessions equipped community-led agricultural cooperatives, store and warehouse managers with the skills and resources to safely store their produce, a necessity for farmers looking to bring their crops to market for a good price.
“The training provides targeted beneficiaries with the tools and knowledge they need to access important regional markets,” Ochuna said.
Extending good agricultural practice
For the past two days, the Ugandan National Bureau of Standards (UNBS) and Makerere University delivered training sessions for the targeted beneficiaries —developing their skills to train trainers and warehouse managers in the effective harvesting and handling of grains including the drying, grading, and treatment of grains and testing aflatoxins levels using scientific techniques.
It is believed that warehouses play a vital role in ensuring that increases in production actually reach the market, allowing farmers to be financially rewarded for their hard work and boosting food security for those who rely on their produce.
The sessions also focused on effective crop storage, ranging from weighing produce, improving the drying process, and controlling the moisture content of crops with the Council emphasising that well-run warehouses unlock a wide range of benefits for smallholder farmers.
Mr Stanley Ahimbisibwe, the Assistant commissioner of Quality Assurance and Standardization in the Ministry of Trade Industry and Cooperatives said the government working with development partners is taking deliberate measures to address grain quality challenges.
“We are looking at how grain millers can penetrate both local and international markets by ensuring that the products are of good quality,” Mr Ahimbisibwe said.
“We want to ensure that the quality of the grains is super and we must address poor post-harvesting, process, and marketing,” he said, adding that the training sought to help the millers improve on their quality by sensitising them about issues of aflatoxins,” he added. Ends
