Kampala
Small-scale farmers can now earn more from their labour by selling their produce directly to the United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) thanks to a signed purchasing deal.
WFP is the largest quality-oriented buyer of graded commodities in Uganda. Last year, the organisation bought food worth $55million (approximately Shs104 billion), and about the same amount is meant to be bought this year. The organisation plans to buy food from Uganda worth $300million in the next three years.
WFP signed a deal to start purchasing food through the Warehouse Receipt System (WRS), a mechanism where warehouse keepers licensed by the Uganda Commodity Exchange (UCE) store high quality agricultural produce from farmer groups, traders and processors in public warehouses.
WFP started its purchase on December 17 in Jinja with 48 metric tonnes of maize from Rock Trust, a group composed of 21 small-holder farmers from Mayuge District.
The WFP country representative, Mr Stanlake Samkange said the move is intended to support the government’s poverty eradication efforts. “Today’s purchase and agreement were the beginning of WFP’s bid to double the amount of food it has been buying in Uganda annually,” he said.
Mr Samkange said WFP has been supporting small-holder farmer groups since 2003. What we are doing today, he said is try to open up more market opportunities so as to increase earned incomes and improve the quality of life for poor people. The organisation also signed a memorandum of understanding with Uganda Commodity Exchange (UCE).
UCE’s Manager, Mr Alex Rwego said the deal marked a new era of marketing agricultural commodities in Uganda. Mr Rwego said UCE was renovating two warehouses in Kasese and Masindi districts and evaluating five more to feed the new market.
Small-scale farmers can now earn more from their labour by selling their produce directly to the United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) thanks to a signed purchasing deal.
WFP is the largest quality-oriented buyer of graded commodities in Uganda. Last year, the organisation bought food worth $55million (approximately Shs104 billion), and about the same amount is meant to be bought this year. The organisation plans to buy food from Uganda worth $300million in the next three years.
WFP signed a deal to start purchasing food through the Warehouse Receipt System (WRS), a mechanism where warehouse keepers licensed by the Uganda Commodity Exchange (UCE) store high quality agricultural produce from farmer groups, traders and processors in public warehouses.
WFP started its purchase on December 17 in Jinja with 48 metric tonnes of maize from Rock Trust, a group composed of 21 small-holder farmers from Mayuge District.
The WFP country representative, Mr Stanlake Samkange said the move is intended to support the government’s poverty eradication efforts. “Today’s purchase and agreement were the beginning of WFP’s bid to double the amount of food it has been buying in Uganda annually,” he said.
Mr Samkange said WFP has been supporting small-holder farmer groups since 2003. What we are doing today, he said is try to open up more market opportunities so as to increase earned incomes and improve the quality of life for poor people. The organisation also signed a memorandum of understanding with Uganda Commodity Exchange (UCE).
UCE’s Manager, Mr Alex Rwego said the deal marked a new era of marketing agricultural commodities in Uganda. Mr Rwego said UCE was renovating two warehouses in Kasese and Masindi districts and evaluating five more to feed the new market.
http://www.monitor.co.ug/artman/publish/business/WFP_starts_buying_food_from_farmers_77075.shtml
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