Blue tuktuks displayed ready for handing over to the vegetable farmers at Kaunda Grounds in Gulu City.photo by Sintes Raymond Obwona.
By Sintes Raymond Obwona
Gulu: Imagine a woman with a child strapped to her back walking several kilometres to a local market with loads of fruits and vegetables on her head to do her petty trade! This is the scenario for majority of rural women who eke a living from fruits and vegetable vending with a few affording to hire commercial motorcycle riders (boda-boda) to carry their luggage to the market. For five years Janet Apiyo, a vegetable farmer based in Purongo Sub County, Nwoya district, was part of the statistic.
“I spent 25,000 shillings on pick-up hire per trip to near-by Anaka town from my garden in Purongo which is costly,” Apiyo said.
Apiyo grows pig-weed (dodo), Okra and tomatoes, all perishable that needs quick access to market.
For Karim Ogwang, a resident of Atura village, Aber sub-county Oyam district, vegetable farming has been his source of livelihood for seven years amidst transport difficulty just like in the case of Apiyo.
Ogwang cultivates tomatoes, cabbages, and grows fruits. His best markets are Gulu city, Minakulu Township and Apac municipality.
Ogwang who has to maneuver his way through some of the bad roads of Atura says he spends up to 130,000 shillings to hire a boda-boda motorcycle to transport one box of ripe tomatoes to markets in Minakulu or Kamdini along Gulu- Kampala.
Ogwang and Apiyo are not isolated cases of poor market accessibility for northern Uganda vegetable farmers but they are rather part of the bigger picture.
A 2018 research report by Syngenta Vegetable Seeds (SVS) in collaboration with Agro-Business Initiative (aBi) reveals that 80% of farmers in northern Uganda lose up to 40% of their vegetables before reaching the market and poor transport means is to blame. The research was carried out in Gulu, Oyam, Lira and Nwoya where vegetable farming is a common economic activity.
Silver lining for vegetable farmers
To improve transportation among vegetable farmers, TechnoServe an international nonprofit organisation that promotes business solutions in the developing world by linking people to information, capital and markets has stepped in to bridge the gap.
Tobby Ojok, the organisation’s Northern Uganda area manager says his institution is proud to be part of the farmers’ story by helping 38 of them from four districts of Gulu, Oyam, Nwoya and Lira acquire tricycle motorbikes (tuktuks) at a subsidized cost.
Ojok says they also trained the farmers in market access information to help them get quality business transaction services.
Ojok revealed that the training and transport means will help preserve the quality of vegetables because rudimentary means of transportation such as boda-bodas and heavy trucks destroy vegetable and fruits while in transit.
Ojok says many of their beneficiaries have testified of improved productivity since they started receiving services from their organization.
Ogwang who himself benefited from the training and got himself a tuktuk hopes to double his farm production since he now has his own means of transport.
For Apiyo, she received the tuktuk with open arms and hopes that she will no longer lose the quality of her vegetables since she will be accessing market in time.
Experts advise on market access
Pascal Kahesi, the Country Support Manager for Syngenta Vegetable Seeds-an Agricultural firm focusing on growing vegetables explains that middlemen still want to buy vegetables cheaply from farmers, which is still a big challenge.
Kahesi recommends that the Local government should develop better transport means in terms of road networks, and also provide public means to farmers.
Jackson Lakor, the Gulu District Production Officer (DPO) observes that farmers face competition from sellers from other districts outside of the region like Mbale, Jinja and Masindi. Lakor says local farmers are being trained by his department to help them catch up with the competition from other areas.
Lakor observes that the other interventions are improving market structures, capacity building on post-harvest handling and quality control Protocol.
A section of thirty-eight of those Small Scale Vegetable Farmers received their tuktuks at Kaunda Grounds in Gulu City last month.
Experts say up to 40% of vegetables among farmers in northern Uganda are lost before reaching the market due to market accessibility challenges attributed to high or improper means of transportation.
