In an effort to reduce poverty and create social benefits, the United States African Development Foundation has signed two grants to support economic development at the grassroots level in Uganda. The grants will benefit Ankole Coffee Producers Cooperative Union Limited (ACPCU) and P’KWI Farmer to Farmer Cooperative (PFFC).
Upon the grant being signed, USADF Chairman Jack Leslie stated, ?USADF strives to identify and work with the most impoverished, under-served, and under-privileged communities in Africa. These grants will fund projects created by these communities to ensure a better quality of life.?
Located in Ishaka Town, Bushenyi District, ACPCU is a 5,000 member smallholder farmer union established by ten cooperative societies of the former whose assets were either stolen or destroyed during the internal armed conflicts of 1980s. The smallholder farmers established ACPCU to help market their coffee collectively, reduce costs, and achieve gains in productivity through improved coffee plants and agricultural techniques. ACPCU bulks members’ coffee to achieve higher profits than small-scale production. They are fair-trade certified and working also to achieve organic certification status. While ACPCU offers higher prices than middlemen, they has been unable to buy much of the members’ coffee due to limited working capital. The five year grant will provide monies for equipment, quality control improvement, training, and a crop finance fund.
PFFC is a smallholder farmer cooperative of some 1600 members located in Bukedea District, Eastern Uganda that produces sunflower seeds. In addition to bulking and selling members’ sunflower seeds, PFFC also adds value by processing the seeds into sunflower oil, adding value to the seeds. The goal is to improve farmers’ capacity to process and market sunflower oil, thus increasing members’ incomes. However, farmers are limited in their production capabilities. USADF funds will finance equipment, construction of a storage facility to stock the bags of seed, oxen for member groups, training, and working capital.
Source: The United States African Development Foundation
