Archive for category: Rwenzori Apple farmers

Youthful coffee farmers in Kasese have been urged to join agribusiness as one way to maximise their earnings.

The call was made a during a one-day training for business incubators in Kasese.

In an exclusive interview with this reporter, at the sidelines of the event, Apollo Segawa, the Executive Director for the Consortium for Enhancing University Responsiveness to Agribusiness Development [CURAD] noted that youths face several challenges making it in the coffee business.

”The majority of the youth don’t own land and have no access to capital,” he said, adding that agribusiness which does not necessarily require one to be involved in primary agriculture might be a good alternative.

He remarked that many youth prefer being nursery operators while some are interested in the tail end of the coffee value chain.

“We have shared opportunities with the youth in Kasese about coffee, starting from nursery operator to consumer use,” Segawa said.

Edward Tanyima , the National Coordinator for Decent Rural Youth Empowerment at the Food and Agriculture Organization [FAO] revealed that 78% of the youth graduates aged 18-30 years remain on the streets looking for formal jobs, leaving agriculture for school dropouts and peasants .

“Educated young people should engage in agribusiness instead of leaving it only to the poor and illiterate,” he said.

Tanyima decried the practice of young people selling their small pieces of land in villages in order to buy boda bodas. Rather, he advised, they should pick interest in agriculture or find other investment opportunities and consider engaging in joint ventures with like-minded individuals.

Charles Katson, a coffee farmer argued for specialisation if the cash crop is to meet its potential in Kasese.

“We [coffee farmers] have not specialized in coffee. Most times it is mixed with other crops, and so it has not got as much attention from farmers as it deserves. As a result you can’t even identify coffee farmers. It is important to specialise in coffee,” Katson said.

Value addition key

Salveri Sunday, a young entrepreneur in the coffee sector encouraged youths to prioritise value addition along the coffee value chain.

For instance, the agripreneur revealed that he buys roasted coffee from Bukonzo Joint [Cooperative Union], crushes it, and adds pineapple, sorghum and bananas to make wine.

Sunday, who used to be a street child, has coffee agribusiness to thank for the transformation of his life.

“I was a street boy who used to eat from the dust bin of Margarita hotel but here am, I now employ more than 100 youth. I’ve even sat on the same table with the president of this country because of my entrepreneurship skills,” he said.

While closing the training, Kasese RDC Lt. Joe Walusimbi thanked the organisers for empowering the youth and called upon the attendees to use the knowledge acquired profitably.

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The outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic early this year affected operations of different sectors of the economy. Especially hard hit was the Tourism industry which was constrained by restrictions on movement, closure of hotels and the ban on international travels.

The Minister of State for tourism, Hon Godfrey Kiwanda Ssuubi says Uganda lost over 2 bn USD in projected income for this Financial Year, from a sector that brought in 1.6 bn USD the previous year.

As government moves in to revive tourism in the country, experts warn that these efforts should be focused on promoting domestic tourism among Ugandans.

Dr. Deus Kamunyu Muhwezi, a Lecturer at the Department of Forestry, Biodiversity and Tourism at Makerere University says that traditionally tourism is sensitive to crises, arguing that in times like this one, destinations must adapt a turnaround strategy for the industry to survive.

“We may not control international tourism at the moment but this may be time for us to adapt; we must move towards activating the local markets. Significant numbers of Ugandans are moving outside for holidays. This is time to keep them here and motivate them to come to undiscovered places,” Kamunyu said.

Kamunyu says that the advantage with domestic tourism is that the money Ugandans spend will remain in circulation to support their local business. However, he cautions that tourism agencies must change pricing strategy to suit the local market.

“The fact is that the sector has been slammed because we were used to dollars coming from outside. Now we have to turn to our locals, adapt to their needs and redo our pricing strategy as part of marketing,” Kamunyu urged.

Claire Mugabi, the Marketing Manager of Uganda Tourism Board (UTB), says that promoting domestic tourism is part of the body’s marketing strategy.

“As the destination marketing organisation, we are determined to get our tourism sector back on track. In terms of our recovery strategy, the first phase is to position Uganda as a safe destination for travel. We shall be reviving visitor confidence in our nation. Part of the strategy is to aggressively focus on the domestic market. This pandemic has taught us to no longer put our eggs on one basket by only focusing on the international travellers,” Mugabi stressed.

However, Kamunyu fears that labour shed off within the tourism industry as a result of COVID-19 is going to negatively affect resumption, productivity and sector recovery.

“The government and sectoral actors did not adequately plan for and support the labour force that got laid off and lost incomes due to the pandemic,” he said.

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