By Emmanuel Okol

Farmers in the Teso sub-region have been trained to form marketing associations to boost the collective marketing of produce and avoid middlemen.

The training of the farmers is a partnership between the Soroti Catholic Diocese Integrated Development Organization [SOCADIDO], a development arm of the Soroti Catholic Diocese, and the Ateker Development Forum, a local non-government organization.

Map (ADEFO) training was held at Eneku Village Enterprise in Soroti city recently.

In an interview with our reporter, Daniel Akudo, Project Coordinator SOCADIDO said a total of 40 farmers from various districts of Teso were called for the training under a project run by Ateker Development Foundation.

Akudo adds that they intend to impact this on 500,000 vulnerable persons in Teso communities by 2026.

“We want to form these marketing associations so that farmers can gain knowledge to market their produce without involving the middlemen,” Akudo said.

Akudo said once farmers in Teso form their produce associations, they will be able to open up bulking centers that facilitate collective marketing of the farm produce.

According to George William Tukei, Soroti City Commercial Officer, much as farmers in the city endeavor to produce on a commercial basis, they find themselves grappling with market access.

“We have realized that the farmers are producing for both consumption and sale, unfortunately, the issue of the market is a very big dilemma for farmers,” he said.

He said the selected farmers were taken through various aspects of management, finances, leadership, membership, and administrative structures.

“We hope that this will help them to improve their incomes to sustain their livelihoods,” he added.

He also said through marketing associations farmers will be able to eliminate middlemen who cheat them.

“Through this, we shall be able to kick out middlemen who cheat out farmers,” Tukei said.

Meanwhile, Peter Enguriat, one of the participants, and Manager Joshua Radio 93.5 Katakwi advised farmers to work together and avoid cliques that tend to bring misunderstandings.

He further encouraged farmers to also form SACCOs, saying this would enable them to save and get loans.

On the other hand, Ben Boham Okiror the project coordinator of ADEFO says training farmers is very important because it gives them knowledge and use of improved dairy farming practices, as well as dairy production and revenues, and overall, the farmer-to-farmer training program improved farmers knowledge, productivity, and revenues.

Okiror who doubles as the Project coordinator of SOCADIDO discloses that SOCADIDO as an Organization is ready to improve nutrition, increase agricultural productivity, raise the standard of living in rural populations, and contribute to global economic growth by calling farmers for training.