Uganda

Download the end of programme report for Uganda here

The Sustain Africa programme in Uganda ran from August 1 2022 to 31 December 2023, supplying 62,190 of rebated fertilizers to 112,509 smallholder farmers through an established network of hub agrodealers and their retail/rural network in the western, central, eastern and northern regions of Uganda. Additionally, 266 kg of crop seeds was sold to 354 smallholder farmers and 5,161.5 Kgs of Crop Protection Products to 3,181 smallholder farmers The programme was implemented in 2 phases.

In Phase 1 Yara East Africa and Export Trading Group provided 20,000MT of rebated fertilizer to agrodealers. This was supported by demand creation through agrodealer engagement meetings and extension activities (demonstration plot establishment, farmer field days, farmer trainings, radios programmes).

In Phase 2, national fertilizer supplier Grainpulse joined the programme. Syngenta also offered rebated seeds and UPL provided crop protection products, while Kickstart provided 1,000 portable irrigation pumps.

AFAP,  the project implementation partner, organized a range of capacity building exercises for 17,212 farmers and agrodealers. These included training in best agronomic practices and crop nutrition by the input companies and AFA and post-harvest handling provided by the Grain council of Uganda. AFAP also worked with agronomists from the input companies to organize 121 radio talk shows aimed at educating farmers on the need to use improved inputs and best agricultural practices and informing farmers where the rebated fertilizer could be purchased.

Regional agro-dealer meetings organized by AFAP in collaboration with the input supply companies,  provided information to 402 agro-dealers on the various fertilizers and their crop nutrition benefits for use in advising farmer

Voices from the Field

Mazimasa Investment Farmer Co-operative

Brian Bwimbale, rice and horticulture farmer

Brian Bwimbale, a farmer and member of the Mazimasa Investment Farmers’ Cooperative produces rice on a large scale and horticulture on a small scale. Brian says that he has been using fertilizers such as urea, microp-planting and top dressing among others. “Before the subsidy, I could harvest roughly 700 kgs of rice per acre but now can harvest 1.2 tons of rice per acre”. He attributes this to the training he received as part of the programme on good agricultural practices.

 KAMM Farmers Services

Hassan Kato, director KAMM Farmers Services

Hassan Kato, director of KAMM Farmers Services in the Masaka district of Uganda has built a major importing and distributing company for fertilizer crop protection, post-harvest materials, farmer training and soil testing,serving up to 25,000 smallholder farmers. Over the past 10 years, Hassan has grown his business from starting capital of  USD 1,000 USD to approximately USD 3.3 million in revenue. “Fertilizer prices had sky rocketed from 98,000 Ugandan shillings to 250,000 Ugandan shillings per bag during the price spike,  but the

Sustain Africa programme reduced that to 130,000 Ugandan shillings and the consumption really increased,” he commented.