Mr. Yahaya Wafana removing excess sucks from the pineapple at his farm in Kangulumira Sob-county, Kayunga district recently. Photo by Chrispus Mubale Muke Chrispus.
A couple of Kilometers away from the central business district of Kampala to the Kangulumira sub country in Kayunga district is a common sight of pineapple farming.
Unlike other crops, pineapples are very perishable and attract a low price in Uganda ranging between shillings of 8,00 – 1,500 per full piece of pineapple.
49-year-old Yahaya Wafana who doubles as the Chairperson of Kangulumira Area Co-operative Enterprise says they find it challenging to preserve the fruit.
“They are always two seasons one bumper season and another one with low harvest, for us to strike the market balance we need to preserve them,” he says.
“Usually, four pineapples cost 4,000 Uganda shillings on the Ugandan market while four (4) dried ones make one kilogram which costs 40,000/= (forty thousand Uganda shillings),” Wafana adds.
Through value addition, he has been able to produce wine, juice and other products from pineapple.
He attributes the bumper harvest from his farm to the local manure made of coffee husks and chicken droppings.
A picture showing coffee husks used for mulching at Mr. Yahaya Wafana’s fam in Kayunga district Uganda. Photo by Chrispus Mubale Muke
The Chairperson Board of Directors, Kangulumira Area Co-operative Enterprise attributes value the concept of value addition to Uganda Co-operative Alliance in partnership with the government of Uganda has offered training to pineapple farmers in Kayunga which thus helps them in value addition.
Mr. Richard Sempijja the regional coordinator of the Uganda cooperative alliance asserts that the cooperative sector is the easiest drive to change the economic situation of the locals.
“The beauty about cooperatives is that they are capable of uplifting the economic status of more than one person,” Sempijja said.
Mr. Wafana Challenged other farmers to form co-operatives and add value to their products in order to fetch profits.
The chairperson believes that without the co-operative ideology, the levels of production would disable them to export.
“When they brought us lessons, we formed a co-operative which has since then increased production, you know the international market is interested in quality in large quantities,” he said.
He adds that life has never been the same since they started adding value to the product which has played a big role in eliminating middlemen who extort them.
“We have since then secured market in Europe and America much as authorization to exporting to some countries is tedious and expensive,” he said.
A collage of dried pieces of pineapples and a bottle of wine manufactured from pineapples. Photo by Chrispus Mubale Muke
In Uganda, Agriculture is the back born of the economy however, farmers still face challenges ranging from lack of capital, poor technology for mechanization, and shortage of land.
During the exclusive interview, he called upon the government to re-establish the co-operative bank in order to ease access to capital tailored to the agricultural and co-operative and introduce incentives on Agro-inputs.
“Sometimes if it rains heavily, this Machin cannot dry the pineapples so we incur lots of losses. Adding Government should help us with tailed electricity tariffs” he remarks
According to records seen by the RTV press team, the co-operative bank was closed by the central bank (Bank of Uganda) in 1999 after USAID withdrawal of her support to the Bank.
