Nile Breweries Limited re-emphasized its longstanding commitment to Ugandan farmers recently. While flagging off the buying session for Sorghum in Teso sub region, NBL team led by Onapito Ekomoloit, Legal& Corporate Affairs director reassured farmers that they are a critical part of NBL value chain and are key for the sustainability of the business. “We have not abandoned farmers as alleged by some media reports recently. Our aggregators are actively engaging them and buying the produce as per the set standards of quality which they are aware of,” said Onapito. “Any delays have been logistical and also caused by too much supply of sorghum during 2018,” he added.
With 100 % of its raw material locally produced, NBL intentions to support local farmers in Uganda through creating ready market for their produce. The company uses home grown barley, sorghum, maize and millet to brew it beers. Currently NBL has up to 25,000 farmers (15,000 for barley and 10,000 sorghum) in Eastern and South Western Uganda and spends up to Shs60.7Bn on buying produce. “We distribute seed to farmers and are always committed to buying from all the farmers who receive seed from our aggregators. Last year’s quantity was 2 million kilogrammes of grain,” says Onapito Ekomoloit, Director Legal& Corporate Affairs, NBL.
NBL team engaged with two of its major aggregators, Achila Limited in Soroti and Kefa in Kumi, who are currently buying sorghum on the behalf of the company from farmers. Ben Akabwai, the manager Acila Enterprises, thanks NBL for resuming the buying of produce which had been halted for a short while due to oversupply. “Farmers were worried about their future, but we are glad that it was only temporary and we are now receiving a lot of produce. However some of the quality is not good due to poor post-harvest storage,” he said.
According to Onapito, while NBL has trained farmers on post harvest handling of the grains, some unfortunately never followed the right procedure especially while drying. “If sorghum is not adequately dried, it will fall short of the quality we need to produce our beers as we have already set the bar high on standard. Thankfully, the aggregators report that currently there is a good quality being brought, so we are happy to proceed as planned,” he said.
NBL ‘s agriculture sustainability goal is to have 100% of its direct farmers skilled, connected and financially empowered by 2025. In 2018, NBL in partnership with BanQu, a non-crypto currency block chain platform, started a Block Chain for Barley farmers in Bukwo areas, allowing them to access digital payments and technology to further their economic opportunity.
“The technology allows transparent real time transactions with end traceability. Farmers’ data is recorded on spot and the farmer owns this data and is able to access it from anywhere,” says Theunis Coetzee, Agric Manager EA AB Inbev. “This therefore increases accountability, and the same data of produce and earnings enable farmers have better access to financial tools and partnership opportunities with financial services,” he adds. Farmers are also trained through farmer schools in partnership with Techno Serve.
February 12