The average age of farmers in the United Kingdom is 59 years old, and the British are concerned that young people are not going into farming. They have therefore put forwards a scheme to pay older farmers to retire, so that farms can be opened up to young blood. Their reasoning is that the old farmers are traditional, but farming is changing so we need those who can adapt to the trends. In Uganda we have young farmers, but not much understanding of the trends of our markets.
Over the past fifty years farming in Britain had become more commercialized, with small farms being swallowed up into large farms, hedgerows being pulled out, and fields enlarged. More fertilizer and weed-killer was being used, and much of the birdlife and wildlife died out. Now the government wants to reverse this trend and allow the land to revert to wildlife habitat, while still producing food in a more environmentally friendly manner. The trend is to use less chemical fertilizer, herbicides and pesticides, carry out more water conservation measures, and restore the habitat, thus encouraging the revival of animal and bird species. All of this is a recent trend, which goes against the factory farming practices of the past half-century.
Markets are now factoring in the environmental cost of food production, and although vegetables may be grown more efficiently in South America, the carbon footprint of transporting them is being taken into account. Thus vegetables that are produced locally for local markets are more sought after, especially when the farm is also certified as complying with these new green credentials. So where does farming in Uganda stand? Where are we in understanding our own markets? Where are we in terms of conservation, innovation in farming practices, low carbon production and traceability?
First it should go without saying that we should produce as much agricultural produce as possible for local consumption, so that we need to import very little. It is a scandal that a product such as honey should be imported into Uganda from Dubai when we produce excellent honey ourselves. The same applies to peanut butter, butter, cooking oil, rice, Irish potatoes, fresh juices, coffee, tea and any other product that can be produced and packaged within Uganda.
For both the promotion of local consumption and export let’s take the example of coffee: Uganda produces excellent coffee; therefore, why do we see Nescafe in hotels and government offices? The reason may be simple laziness: Nescafe is convenient because it is soluble, while most Ugandan coffee needs to be filtered. However, this is a simple matter of buying a coffee pot with a plunger. These are now available inexpensively in the big supermarkets such as Shoprite. We have a BUBU policy (Buy Uganda Build Uganda), but we should start with ourselves. In the Uganda Revenue Authority every floor of their headquarters has a coffee station – with Nescafe being served. If our own tax collecting body cannot lead the way in supporting local producers what does this say about our seriousness?
Countries such as Britain will only import agricultural products from Africa that they cannot produce themselves. In our case this includes tea, coffee, cocoa, vanilla, moringa, and dried fruits, including Jackfruit, which is now considered a super-food. There has been a lot written about how Africa produces commodities such as tea and coffee, but benefits little in the way of value addition (though there are a few African companies who are aiming to change this). But there are also good reasons why finishing of such commodities is often carried out close to their markets. For example we can roast and package coffee in Uganda, but roast coffee has a fairly short shelf life, so one has to be sure that it gets to the consumer before it becomes stale. There are now mechanisms to sell coffee online through platforms such as AliBaBa and Amazon and these should be exploited, but I believe the volumes of Ugandan finished coffee on the world market will still be small. On the other hand we could start by promoting and drinking our own coffee.
Coffee roasters are increasingly buying various types of coffee from across the world and blending according to the demands of their particular market. Therefore, if a country such as Columbia is known as a high quality coffee producer, roasters will automatically want Columbian coffee. Ugandan coffee might be just as good, but if no one has ever heard of it, it will not have the same market appeal. So the government needs to take every opportunity at every international event to promote Ugandan coffee.
Another increasingly important issue is traceability: when people are putting food and drink into their body they now want to know where it has come from. Most Ugandan coffee is not traceable because it is bought through middlemen, so it ends up in blends where it cannot be identified.
When we understand what can be grown for local consumption (import substitution), and what are the demands of the international markets, we can target and grow these markets. We can grow the size of the ‘cake’ and all eat more.
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