The Bunyoro Kitara Kingdom (BKK) in partnership with ENCOT microfinance ltd have inked a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) in a bid to promote soya bean farming as a short-term crop variety from coffee farming which the kingdom earlier advocated for.
Andrew Byakutaga, the prime minister of the Bunyoro Kitara Kingdom (BKK) said that the program is very crucial in promoting household incomes by growing the short-term maturing crops as compared to the long time maturing coffee which the kingdom has been promoting.
He however said that the initiative will not interfere with the kingdom's mission to promote coffee but rather to mobilise communities to improve on their sources of income within short periods of time.
"This initiative will not shift our interest in promoting coffee farming but rather act as a mobilisation tool for communities to improve on their household incomes by growing the short time crops." He said
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According to him, promoting soya beans will help in addressing limited land issues especially to those that do not have large chunks of land to grow sugarcanes and coffee.
"We have for several times been faced with land competitions among the people growing sugarcanes and coffee, therefore, we hope that promoting suya beans will help those with limited land pieces to also improve on their household status by using the small plots of land to earn within short periods of time." He continued
Samuel Karuhanga, the Executive Director (ED) of ENCOT foundation said that the program is one of the initiatives they undertake within their scoops of duties with the aim to improve on the financial status of the small scale farmers.
He said that they thought it wise to emerge the initiative into the kingdom's programs to make it easier for the implementation.
Karuhanga noted that they have already done a number of ground research including looking for markets of the soya beans, partnering with different organizations that are eligible to supply farmers with quality soya beans.
He also said that they have looked further to opening links for the farmers to access loans but also to provide fertilizers to the farmers to boost yields of proposed seedlings.
"We have also partnered with different small value chain actors including Mount Meru to buy from the small scale farmers, also signed a MoU with soya bean Africa from Makerere University to help in supplying quality soya bean, ICEA insurance to provide better insurance but also financial services through ENCOT Microfinance." He said
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Karuhanga promised that they will be ready to partner with the Kingdom to support coffee farmers moving forward.
