Just three years ago, Korobe Annaniah, was a struggling farmer, worn down with loans, school fees for his children and many other recurring expenses. As a young man, he had envisioned life, at the age of 57, full of wealth and tranquility, but his farming enterprise kept failing him, with meagre harvests each year and even lower sales.  

And just as he was about to give up, in 2020, he joined the Agriculture Market Support (AMS) project implemented by the Sasakawa Africa Association (SAA), backed by the World Food Programme (WFP). He was trained in good agronomic practices, post-harvest handling practices, collective bulking, and commodity marketing, aspects of agribusiness that transformed his life. 

Embracing these skills, Korobe collaborated with fellow farmers to collectively offer their produce to the NADIFA store, a satellite collection point with a fair price for their produce. In his first year after training, Korobe’s 55 bags of produce sold him an impressive UGX 7,200,000 (USD 1926.22), a figure that was beyond his wildest imagination.  

“The knowledge I gained on post-harvest management, and collective marketing has been a game-changer for me,” he said.  

 This amount allowed him to clear a UGX 1,300,000 loan he had secured from the Savings and Loan Association, and which he was struggling to pay. He also spent UGX 930,000 in clearing tuition fee balances for his two children, and UGX 1,750,000 on household expenses.  

He spared UGX 3,200,000 for re-investment in his farming work, expanding his land under cultivation to 32 acres, comprising 23 acres of maize, 4 acres of sorghum, and 5 acres of beans. Using organic manure, he has been able to keep his production costs low, and he expects his output to continually increase.

Retrieved from SAA E-Newsletter, issued in September 2023 with Focus on Uganda