Kilimo Trust CEODiscussed New Approach to Value Chain Development with Key MAAIF Officials From all 112 Districts in Uganda
Kampala, December, 9th 2015.
Kilimo TrustCEO, Prof. Nuhu Hatibu,made a key note presentation to provoke theDistrict Agricultural and Marketing Officers from all the districts in Uganda to think out of the Box when it comes to developing agricultural value chains for creating wealth among farmers.
Rarely would a keynote presentation enlist so much excitement and commitment to change as Prof. Hatibu’s. As Beatrice Byarugaba, the Director for Agricultural Extension in Uganda’s Ministry of Agriculture, Animal Industries and Fisheries (MAAIF) put it, “the participants here have got a complete mindset change; they now see the opportunities they have to take advantage of and the models that are working to transform farmers from subsistence to commercial agriculture. We thank you for such a wonderful enlightenment.”
Prof. Hatibu highlighted how the East African Region spends USD 500millionper year importing rice from countries like Pakistan and Thailand against the potential the region has in its five million hectares suitable for production of wetland rice alone, which would fetch USD 150billion per year for the region, especially if high yielding and market demanded varieties like SARO5 were promoted. This meeting was organized by the MAAIF and the Feed the Future Project in Uganda.
He stressed the need to change the way practitioners measure results. “We must move from fascination with hectares cultivated or irrigated or Yields per Ha – to measuring volumes of value added products traded at a profit. We must change mindset from Price to Profit. We must analyze the return on every investment and encourage specialization & competitiveness.These should be clearly reflected in the development indicators we monitor at all levels of the value chain.” Prof. Hatibu argued.
He concluded with an illustration of the “Consortium Model” that Kilimo Trust is using to implement agricultural projects in the region, having learnt a number of lessons from use of other models that yielded fewer results. The successes of this model are already visible in the 1-year old Competitive African Rice Initiative (CARI) Project implemented by Kilimo Trust in Tanzania.The model is hinged on a purely market driven establishment of partnerships between lead firms (big buyers and processors) and organized commercial oriented farmer cooperatives. It has attracted credible, purely private sector partners to the consortium including Yara (fertilizer supply) and NMB Bank (appropriate financing farmers and other actors) due to the benefitsthese stakeholders see in the partnership. His full presentation can be accessed here…link..