By: Charity Akullo
Kole
Farmers in the rural areas of Lango Sub-region have been advised to optimally utilize electricity to add value to their agricultural produce and earn more.
The government through the Rural Electrification Agency (REA) connected rural areas to the main power grid early this year. However, residents in the areas where the power line has been switched on are not using it to add value to their produce.
Now farmers under different cooperatives in such areas have been trained on how they can profitably tap more income from the available electricity supplies.
Bonny Abor, a member of Alito Joint Farmers’ Cooperative Society (AJFCS) in Okwerodot Sub-county, Kole District, said he has been growing mainly soybeans, maize, and simsim which they bulk as a group and their leaders look for companies that buy at a fairly better price.
Abor said that during the harvesting season, several middlemen traverse villages to book their yet-to-be-harvested produce and offer low prices to distressed farmers.
“Because you are desperately looking for money to settle pressing needs like paying medical bills and school fees, you end up accepting their low offer,” Abor said.
Farmers like Abor sometimes sell their oil seed produce as raw materials to industries that manufacture products such as laundry soap, cooking oil as well as. Such factories get huge benefits because they also sell the by-products as animal feeds.
However, Abor has now been trained on how to acquire small loans for buying small electricity-powered machines to add value to their produce. “I am planning to acquire a simple machine to grind and pack soya porridge flour, which can fetch me higher prices than selling it raw,” Abor said.
The price of soya beans has dropped significantly in recent years. Three years ago it was over Shillings 3,000 per kilogram, but in June this year, it dropped to about Shillings 1,600. However, a packet of a kilo of soya porridge flour is Shillings 5,000.
Judith Adeki, the Chairperson of Yele Pi Yotkomi Farmers Group in Ayer Sub-county, Kole District, said her group specializes in growing and bulking soya beans through AJFCS, but this season she also planted simsim and groundnuts.
Adeki, who has already bought a grinding machine at shs1.7m, said she will process the produce.
“I want to start making groundnut and simsim paste which I will pack in plastic containers of different sizes. This will fetch me more money than selling as produce,” Ms Adeki said.
Currently, a kilogram of groundnut and simsim in Lira City goes for Shillings 7,500 but a kilogram of the paste is sold at Shilling 25,000 and a container of 2 Kgs is Shillings 50,000.
John Christopher Okwang, is the Chairman of Alito Joint Farmers’ Cooperative Society that has 14,816 members spread in 14 districts in Lango and Acholi Sub-regions.
Okwang said the group is partnering with financial institutions that can give them low-interest loans, to help members buy low-cost and simple machines for value addition.
Preparing consumers in time
Henry Nowel, a communication specialist working with Clean Energy Enthusiasts (CEE), who trained the community on the productive use of electricity and energy said the training was to empower farmers with business skills, knowledge, and productive use of energy.
Nowel said that although the power line connecting from Lira City to Alito is not yet energized, people have to be prepared to use it.
“Wire your houses, put the necessary machines in place, so that by the time the power lines are energized, you are ready because opportunities meet those who are ready,” Nowel said.
He said those who add value to simsim for instance can have machines that sort and make paste so that they produce more products within a short time.
“Most people winnow and make simsim locally which consumes time and compromises quality. But using machines which consume low electricity, increases production within a short time,” Nowel said.
