Students add value to rice, coffee

By Lominda Afedraru

Most times farmers processing rice and coffee for marketing in the Ugandan local markets do it in the most rudimentary way where the quality is compromised.

In most cases different rice varieties, especially Kaiso and Super are mixed with gravel of stone pellets thereby adulterating quality.

At the same time coffee is harvested when the beans are not ready and poorly dried, resulting in poor quality coffee and aflatoxins.

Value addition

However, lecturers at Uganda Christian University (UCU) in Mukono have teamed up with the private sector, dealing in quality rice and coffee processing by training students pursuing agribusiness courses to do the same.

Samuel Kalimunjaye, a lecturer at the university heading this initiative, notes that his team is engaging students at the university in adding value to rice and coffee by processing quality products to attract a specific group of buyers.

Starting

The students are taken on ground where farmers are growing rice ,mainly in eastern Uganda and Elgon areas where Arabica coffee is grown.

They are skilled right from the growing process to harvesting, processing and packaging.
Kalimunjaye says the university is teaming up with private dealers in rice value chain and coffee value chain who are already processing these products according to the required quality to meet the market demand.

This is because the dealers already have groups of farmers they are dealing with who have been trained in processing quality rice and coffee.

“We usually organise the farmers to process quality rice and we are particularly interested in Super rice. When these farmers are threshing rice, we bring the students on ground to participate in the exercise. When the rice is milled, students are involved in screening by checking if there are stone in it. If so they sort out the stone pellets and broken rice, weigh it and package in different kilogrammes ready for delivery. The same exercise applies to coffee,” Kalimunjaye explained.

Packaging

The rice packaged by students is called Aromana Tirinyi super rice and the coffee is called Aromana Arabic coffee.

The idea of engaging students in this initiative is to make them start their own business enterprise along rice/coffee value chain and market the same once they have completed studies.

James Otieno, who has been engaged in roasting coffee and processing quality rice, has played a key role in linking the university to farmers whom he has organised to process quality products which they supply to him for packaging and marketing.

He explained that apart from the students engaging in processing the two products, they are encouraged to learn about the best agronomy practices including how the crops are grown to achieve high yields.

“When the students are interacting with the farmers, we make sure they get to know basic knowledge as to how farm inputs such as pesticides and manure are applied and at what intervals to keep the crop healthy. The students are also sensitised on how to keep the soil fertile and how to harvest and store rice and coffee to avoid post-harvest loses,” he explained.

Students package the rice in one kilogramme bag costing Shs5,000 and five kilogrammes costing Shs30,000. Rice is purchased at farm gate price of Shs3,000 and once value is added to it the price automatically increases.

The Aromana Arabica Coffee is packaged in 100gms and 250gm bags costing Shs4,000 and Shs7,500 respectively.

According to Otieno a good number of students are venturing into setting up their own business initiative in quality rice and coffee value chain.

The target market for the products is supermarkets in Kampala, Mukono with possibility of expanding the marketing into supermarkets in other parts of the country.

He said this kind of initiative is good for students because once they complete studies, they will get engaged in setting up their own business initiatives to earn a living.

This will reduce their mind set of looking for white colour jobs after completing studies which jobs are not readily available.

To him this can work well by linking the students to grass root farmers because this can interest them to engage in farming as business.

The planting

• Rice seeds are soaked prior to planting.
• Depending on the level of mechanisation and the size of the planting, seeding occurs in three ways. In many Asian countries that have not mechanized their farming practices, seeds are sown by hand. After 30-50 days of growth, the seedlings are transplanted in bunches from nursery beds to flooded paddies. Seeds can also be sown using a machine called a drill that places the seed in the ground.

Source: Daily Monitor