Economic Growth Uganda Project #47086

Agricultural Empowerment for Rural Farmers

by Cosma Sustainable Rural Development

Agricultural Empowerment for Rural Farmers

Project Report | Feb 6, 2023
2022 Agriculture program update

By George Mugeny & Sean Minton | Financial Director & Development Consultant

Financial literacy training with a cooperative

Agricultural production

Cosma’s strategy is to eradicate poverty by providing high quality agriculture inputs and logistical support that allows rural farmers to access output markets. Cosma helps communities engage in commercial farming by equipping them with seeds, crop insurance, supplies, education and consulting. Two times every year, Cosma provides farmers with everything they need.

Season A of 2022:

200 kg of high quality maize seeds were given out to 30 farmers of different village cooperatives
2021’s season B was so productive that Cosma developed a long backlog of cooperatives wishing to join its program. The output of Cosma supported harvests were greater than those they could not provide services to and this resulted in high demand for Cosma support.
As 2022 progressed, Central Uganda faced forecasts of severe drought, forcing some cooperatives to choose other options. As predicted, the region suffered a long spell of drought. This combined with the fact that fewer cooperatives registered for services, agricultural outputs were less than forecasted. Read more here:

Season B 2022

325 kg of high quality maize seeds were given out to 34 farmers
Over 30 acres of maize were planted with an expected harvest of about 30,000 kg.
Rainfall during this season was much better than the previous season. We expect to receive good prices for this harvest.

Micro-financing

Cosma supports economic development by providing cooperative loans for communities experiencing extreme poverty. The cooperatives aggregate their members to receive low interest rates. This allows them to invest in small generating income businesses. Cosma has a total of 26 participating village cooperatives, made up of mostly women, youth and smallholder farmers. These 26 participants comprise a total of about 1036 individuals. In 2022 8 cooperatives received capital loans:

Gave 4 capital loans to cooperatives in Q1 of 2022
Gave 4 more capital loans to 8 village cooperatives in Q3 of 2022.

Mr. Mulindwa showing drought effects on his crops

George visiting a participating cooperative

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