Cooperative Alliance calls on Speaker for support

The Uganda Cooperative Alliance (UCA) has sought the support of the Speaker to boost productivity of cooperative unions in the Busoga region.

The General Secretary UCA, Ivan Asiimwe, said many of the cooperatives in Busoga are failing because of a weak financial base and organisational structure.

“We want your support to help farmers in cooperatives to become fully commercialized. The NGOs come to help for a short time and go away thereafter,” Asiimwe said.

Asiimwe explained that when farmers are well organised in their cooperatives, it is easier to source market for them.

“We have Nile Breweries which is willing to support farmers growing sorghum and buy from them the produce; all we need is to convince the farmers,” he added.

Asiimwe also decried the poor supervision at the district level stating that the people in charge of cooperatives are District Commercial Officers who are  appointed by the Local Government Ministry and monitored by Chief Administrative Officers.

“Ideally, this person is supposed to be reporting to the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Cooperatives but you will find that the Ministry of Local Government hires someone with no understanding of cooperatives,” he said.

Asiimwe also noted that the Ministry has only 10 cooperative officers to monitor over 19,000 cooperatives in the country.

Harrison Ssebuliba, the Manager AgriBusiness Unit at UCA said there are many groundnut farmers in Busoga region yet the crop is not commercially viable.

“With your help, we would want to talk to the farmers to grow soya beans which produce oil that attracts a better value on the market compared to groundnuts,” Ssebuliba said.

The Speaker promised to heed to the request of UCA but also asked them to support more farmers and upcoming cooperatives in Busoga.

“Support the groundnut and mango farmers in Namutumba and Kamuli respectively to get markets for their produce; and for the restoration of Busoga Dairy Farmers Association,” she said.