Kabale and the surrounding districts in South Wetern Uganda are the newest area to be part of the barley value chain with over 2,800 farmers.
Over all, there are about 25000 farmers engaged in barley growing country wide.
According to the brewer which is Nile Breweries, adding Kabale to the value chain is aimed at improving farmers’ household income and productivity.
Theunis Coetzee, Agro manager, Nile Breweries, East African region said this will promote local production.
“This will ensure the barley used for beer production is brewed within the country,” Coetzee said, noting that they are using the same number of farmers, the same area and we are producing everything in the country.
This shows you the increase in terms of yields and the quality in terms of life of the farmers.
He noted that achieving this requires training, skills and empowering farmers financially to get the right quantity and quality of barley required.
This will ensure the sustainability and profitability to the brewer for the next 100 years.
“The farmers are trained in modern barley farming methods which involves planting in lines rather than the traditional way where the broadcast method is used,” he added.
Despite Kabale being known for growing Irish potato, it is now adapting to growing barley as a cash crop that is more paying.
“Using modern methods increases their productivity and they are able to engage in saving.”
In Order to encourage other farmers within the area to join in barley growing, the best farmers were awarded tarpaulins and booklets with tips on how to grow the barley.
Through Techno Serve, upto 80 demo sites called farmer field schools have been established with each field upto thirty members who regularly come for training depending on the crop phenology within the South Western region.
Walter Bwire , Techno Serve lead noted that the demand for beer continues to grow with the growing population which translates into demand for barley which is a critical raw material.
“Current annual production is about 20,000 metric tonnes per year. In the next three – five years, we need to increase our annual production by 30% – 40%,” Bwire said.
Bob Mutegeki, agriculturalist team leader, Nile Breweries said that under farmer financial empowerment, the need for improved productivity per unit area of land cultivated will require use of fertilizer and other agro inputs.
“These require availability of funds in either capital or credit,” he said adding that to achieve all this ABInbev is implementing a VSLA model in the barley growing areas through training in financial literacy.
He added that they intend to motivate linkages to bigger financial institutions since the area of Kabale and Western Uganda is unbanked and does not have financial institutions.
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