Background

 

The Central Archdiocesan Province Caritas Association (CAPCA) project is supported by Caritas Denmark and  operates in six sub-counties of Bulo and Kalamba in of Butambala district, Kituntu, Buwama, Kammengo and Mutuba Gumu town council of Mpigi district. The project aim is to economically transform and achieve improved livelihood of among 1296 households.

 

UGOPAP-CAPCA in Caritas Kampala in the Archdiocese of Kampala operates in six sub-counties, namely; Buwama, Kammengo, Kituntu and Mutuba Gumu Town council in Mpigi district, Bulo and Kalamba in Butambala District. The project employs five staff; the coordinator, three project officers and a project accountant. The total direct project beneficiaries are 1296 farmers organised in 60 farmer groups that form six farmer primary Cooperative Societies. These primary farmer cooperative societies include; BOPA Cooperative Society Ltd, KOFA  Cooperative Society  Ltd, Kitakyusa  Farmers’ Cooperative Society Ltd , Mutuba Gumu Mpigi Farmers’ Cooperative Society Ltd in Mpigi District and Kalamba Farmers’ Cooperative Society Ltd and Malere Kaalo Katuka Farmers’ Cooperative Society Ltd in Butambala district. Each farmer primary cooperative society is comprised of 10 farmer groups with an average membership of 20 farmers each.

 

The project overall goal is to contribute to poverty alleviation and the promotion of sustainable livelihoods among rural communities in Uganda.

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Project objectives

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Theme 1: Strengthening Family livelihood

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The project strives to strengthen joint initiatives taken by rural families to pursue their right to be food secure and support the families to have sustainable livelihoods. In fulfilling this objective, 82% of the project beneficiaries are food secure, 86% of the families under UGOPAP-CAPCA eat a balanced diet. The project has supported the farmers with value addition equipment. One coffee hauler and support for the extension of three phase hydro-electric power to the coffee factory at Mitalamaria to help the coffee farmers in processing their coffee to sell value added coffee for increased income.  The coffee factory is now functional and since its commencement on 17th May 2018 up to 31st December 2018 it has processed 113,277Kgs of Fair Average Quality (FAQ) coffee from 203165Kgs of unprocessed coffee (Kibooko). The total bags of coffee husks sold were 705bags each sold at 5000/= (Five thousand shillings) as minimum price. A total of 20,850,550/= (Twenty million Eight hundred fifty thousand five hundred fifty shillings has been generated as gross income from both sales of coffee husks and milling charges. The total expenditure was 15,275,500/= (Fifteen million two hundred seventy five thousand five hundred shillings). Cash at Bank was 4,000,000/= (four million shillings). Cash at hand 1,575,050/= (One million five hundred seventy five thousand fifty shillings). Another value addition equipment is the maize mill constructed at Bulo, however, extension of power line to make it functional is still ongoing.

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Theme 2: Strengthen rural organizations

The the project strengthens Community Based Organizations (CBOs) and their emerging networks of organized rural population in supporting local livelihoods. The project also helps farmers through their established CBOs to secure equal access to basic rights through active engagements of local decision makers. Currently, 60 farm groups and six farmers’ primary cooperative societies are registered, and supported by the project. The cooperative societies form a strong community platform used by the farmers for lobbying and advocacy as well as management of their development initiatives. A total of 18 farmer groups out of 60 carry out farmer group enterprises that contribute to farmer group revenue. The six farmer primary cooperative Societies market farmers’ agricultural produce collectively. This reporting period a total of 42.7tons of Fair Average Quality (FAQ) coffee were sold collectively through the six cooperative societies.

 

Theme 3: Strengthen Rural Development

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The project under this theme strengthens Community Based Organizations and their partners to advocate for sustainable development in rural areas. All the six primary cooperative societies have written advocacy plans and are implementing them. During this reporting period the there three major issues the cooperatives advocated for are:

 

• Advocated for the grading of feeder road to ease marketing of agricultural produce from their village. e.g. Kamugombwa to Busango in Kalamba sub-county in Mpigi District.

• Advocated for restoration of forest cover in government depleted reserve forests in Mpigi and Butambala district, e.g. Joint communication and resolutions made after the stakeholders meeting organized by Buganda Kingdom County Chief of Butambala County in which Caritas Kampala was a key stakeholder.

• Advocated for enforcement of the district ordinance for ensuring coffee quality standards by the local government authorities and Uganda Coffee Development Authority (UCDA). e.g. Deliberations and discussions presented by the Caritas Kampala CAPCA staff when they participated in Mpigi district stakeholders meeting held at district headquarters on 11th May 2018.

• The cooperatives together with Caritas Kampala advocated for environment protection by engaging the forest department of Mpigi district and Butambala district to stop the rampant deforestation that is taking place in government forest reserves.

 

Activities carried out

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The planned activities that were implemented include; held 12 CBT performance review and feedback meetings; held 12 trainings in Climate Smart Agricultural practices; carried out 24 project monitoring  activities by project staff in advocacy, marketing and CBT activities, Piloted simple irrigation technologies by use of 18 treadle water pumps; carried out 4 follow up meetings E-tag verification of agricultural inputs which is worked on by the Uganda National Bureau  of Standards(UNBS); pursued Mpigi District Ordinance on coffee Quality and how it is being enforce; carried out 6 engagement meetings with duty bearers of Mpigi and Butambala local government authorities while implementing Agency lobby activities, Carried out 36 cooperative lobby activities and 6 mobilization and sensitization to support cooperative membership recruitment, supported 6 cooperatives in attainment of permanent certificates and provided Capitalization fund to one cooperative society to support collective marketing, carried out 6 youth mobilization and sensitization on cooperative management as well as holding one review and feedback meeting for marketiers, group and executive cooperative members, facilitated electricity connection at Bulo maize mill, Conducted one 3 days residential training for  30 new and 30 old Community Based Trainers in climate change adaptation and mitigation techniques in 6 cooperative societies, supported 6 cooperatives with 60 bicycles to facilitate 60 CBTs while carrying out their duties; trained 50 women and youth in agricultural based value addition. All the mentioned project activities were implemented during the year 2018.

 

Program

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UGOPAP-CAPCA programme in Caritas Kampala Archdiocese of Kampala is aiming at building capacity of farmer cooperatives in managing their development initiatives, advocate for farmer friendly agricultural policies and their proper enforcement, lobby for improved public service delivery by engaging duty bearers in their local government authorities. The cooperatives also help to promote collective marketing of agricultural produce to enable the individual cooperative members obtain better obtain members to enable the individual cooperative member get better price for his/her produce. The objective of collective marketing is to increase household income through selling agricultural produce to better markets. A total of 1296 farmers constitute the total project beneficiaries. Out of these 343 farmers were actively involved in collective marketing of coffee in this reporting period. It is expected that this number will continue to grow as more farmers realize the benefit of collective marketing.

 

Achievements

1. Constructed a coffee factory in Mitala Maria

The six cooperatives through shareholding have constructed a coffee factory to add value to their coffee.

2. Access to food
According to UGOPAP Evaluation Survey report, 2017 there was   5% increase in the proportion of targeted households having a minimum of three meals per day all year round from 77% in 2016. This report also indicated that 86% of the targeted households had regular balanced diets over a day all year round, representing a 2% increase up from 84% in 2016. It is estimated that these achievements have been maintained during the reporting period, because throughout the year 2018 the project area has been blessed with enough rainfall and favorable temperatures favoring the majority of the food crops, leading to increased food production.

3. Governance
All the six cooperatives have democratically elected their leaders. Out of 42 cooperative executive leaders in all the six cooperatives, 14 are women. All the six managers in the six cooperative societies are youth of which one is a woman. Three out of the six cooperatives have received their annual d Audit reports from the district commercial officer. The rest submitted their financial documents; they are yet to be audited. During the local council election at the village level 15 cooperative members from the six cooperatives contested for positions of leadership. Out of 15 members 10 were elected to become leaders on the village councils of which 4 were women. There also 31 cooperative members who hold leadership positions in their community. E.g. (leadership positions in church, mosque and cultural committees).

4. Saving and Credit

The six cooperative societies carry out saving and credit services to their members. On average members save between 5000/= to 25000/= per individual per month.

5. Access to Education
The Majority of the children of school going age in families supported by CAPCA project are enrolled into school. The UGOPAP evaluation survey repor, 2017 indicated that 93.6% of children of the school going age (4-13 years) in households supported by CAPCA project are enrolled in school.

6. Access to Health services
Farmers access health services from the district hospitals at Mpigi hospital and Gombe hospital at Mpigi and Butambala districts, respectively.

7. Access to clean water
Majority of farmers fetch water from nearby water springs with limited access to piped water and bore holes.

8. Access to market for agricultural produce
The cooperative societies have been able to access market for agricultural produce especially the coffee market. They have for instance sold 42.7tons of processed coffee (FAQ) to NUCAFE and other coffee buyers in this reporting period.

9. Access to agricultural extension services

CAPCA staffs and CBTs together with the local government agricultural officers have continued to provide agricultural extension services to farmers. However, the ration of
agricultural extension service provider to farmer is still high standing at 1:500 farmers above the recommended one of 1:300 farmers.

 

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