Posted on March, 17, 2021 at 12:19 pm
In an effort to support sustainable agribusiness development and management, government set up the Agricultural Cluster Development Project (ACDP) to market linkages, post-harvest handling, and storage and value addition. This requires public and private sector investments improved food security and enhanced household income.
In that regard, ACDP last month linked up local agro-input dealers to financial institutions and other partners to provide Business Development Services (BDS).
Then last week, the stakeholders met again to harness the process at Imperial Golf View hotel. Unlike the first meeting that was mostly about getting acquainted with the process, last week’s meeting was a business-to-business open day with the aim of forming productive alliances.
An alliance is a platform where financial institutions, produce buyers, agro-input dealers, farmer organizations and other business development partners continuously engage to bridge the gaps that prevent them from attaining their business goals. In other words, the component of alliances fosters market linkages through productive alliances and support measures to eliminate bottlenecks and trouble spots in the agricultural value chain. Indeed, present were representatives from financial institutions, off-takers, insurers and BDS providers.
According to Frederick Muhanguzi, the ACDP organisational specialist, the meeting formed 12 productive alliances to cover 57 districts.
“They will split according to the commodity in a particular area. For instance, if the commodity is coffee, the alliance will include farmers, hullers, union and bank, among others. We also created working groups for each productive alliance to analyse the progress and advise on how to follow up.”
Source: Ministry of Agriculture, Animals Industry and Fisheries.