The author thinks that a wall of money from the global organic agriculture sector is about

to collapse on the side of Uganda. But is the country awake and ready to tap into this fund and if not can this conversation awaken all the stakeholders in this sector?

While the global market for organic agriculture products has reached 55 billion Euros (~80 billion USD), Uganda only received confirmed orders of

organic produce worth only 300 million USD for export in 2015 (about 200 million euros). According to International Federation of organic Agriculture Movement (IFOAM) and the Research Institute of Organic Agriculture (FiBL) in 2015, the biggest share of the organic market is taken by USA worth 24.3 billion euros, followed by Germany (7.6 billion euros), France (4.4 billion euros) and China (2.4 billion euros). However, a recent scientific publication by a PhD student at Makerere University (Norman Kwikiriza) has indicated that Uganda has the second largest number of certified organic farmers (189,610) in the world after India (650,000) but with the largest area under organic agriculture in Africa.

According to the National Organic Movement of Uganda (NOGAMU), organic products sourced from Uganda include cotton (lint, yarn and finished garments), coffee (Arabic and Robusta), sesame (simsim), dried fruit (Pineapples, apple bananas, mangoes, jack-fruit), fresh fruits (pineapple, apple bananas, passion fruits, avocadoes, papaya (pawpaw), ginger), jack-fruit, vanilla, cocoa, fish, shea butter and shea nuts, bird eyed chilies, dried hibiscus, honey and bark cloth. These products are exported to Europe, USA, Asia and other part of Africa where demand is driven by tourists with health concerns coupled by increase in numbers of informed consumers that are nutritionally and environmentally conscious. Consequently, the number of organic exporters in Uganda has been growing and now totals 44. However, results of the PhD study on value chain and agribusiness development by Kwikiriza and Stephen Anecho (MSc. Student) who studied consumer characteristics and determinants of their preferences for organic products as well as Consumer willingness to pay for organic products in Uganda found that our exporters rarely meet the volume orders for export of organic produce. Majority of exporters cited infrastructural limitation for processing export-quality-grade dried pineapples. These studies have pointed out that more volumes could be available for local, regional and export markets if:i) Bank interest rates were lowered to encourage

investment in infrastructure by processors ii) a range of organic pineapple products were produced

through value addition supported by researchiii) there was better coordination among stakeholders in

the pineapple value chain iv) there was enabling policy environment that favors

organic sector.

Despite these challenges, all sources of organic produce are fully certified or are in conversion where quality is assured through participatory guarantee system (PGS). The organic products from Uganda meet the export standards and are internationally accredited by certifying bodies including UgoCert, IMO, Ceres, Ecocert, Soil Association and BCS.

What is organic agriculture? Organic Agriculture (OA) is defined by the Codex Alimentarius Commission as a holistic production management system, which promotes and enhances agro-ecosystem health, including biodiversity, biological cycles and soil biological activity. It does not support indiscriminate use of synthetic drugs, fertilizers and pesticides but supports use of ecological approaches integrated with indigenous knowledge.

Strategies for increasing market share by smallholder farmers

Increase in global OA market share by developing countries

has been suggested by the African Union (AU) and Comprehensive African Agriculture Development Program (CAADP) as a vehicle for economic rural development in African countries. However, Sub-Saharan Africa’s agribusiness sector faces the challenges that most crops are produced by small-sized farms with poor market access and limited capacity for quality assurance and grading for high value chains end markets. At the same time, the current pressure on natural resources such as soil, water and trees for fuel is not sustainable. Niels Halberg and others of International Centre for Research in Organic Food Systems (ICROFS) contend that organic agriculture and food systems is an interesting case of smallholder farmers’ intensification from the perspective of market access via high value chains, improved food security, livelihood and improved natural resource management.

Due to a greater need for African countries to participate in the global market in an attempt to balance trade with industrialized and technologically endowed nations, for now African governments have no choice but to develop sustainable, resilient, and productive low-input farming systems where they have competitive advantage. Deliberate effort by African countries to indulge in OA will enable smallholder farmers to participate in the global export market in order to yield significant benefits for its economy, society and the environment. This, therefore, necessitated integrated research into - on the one hand - how to organize organic high value chains to improve chain management and livelihood benefits for the farmers and - on the other hand - development of agro-ecological methods for farming systems intensification based on sustainable natural resource management.

Productivity and growth in organic value chains (ProGrOV)Continental efforts to promote organic agriculture is in line with the Productivity and Growth in Organic Value Chain (ProGrOV) project was internationally inspired by ICROFS since 2011 but funded by the Danish International Development Agency (DANIDA). The project was however regionally coordinated by Makerere University (MAK)- College of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences (CAES), Universities of Nairobi (UoN) and Sokoine University of Agriculture (SUA) in Tanzania. Also involved were the national organic umbrella organizations including NOGAMU, KOAN, TOAM for Uganda, Kenya and Tanzania, respectively, as associate private sector to implement the project. The immediate objective was to strengthen regional capacity in generating research based knowledge for supporting increased productivity and sustainable growth in organic agriculture production and value chains, and contributing to human resource capacity building (9 PhDs and 6 MScs) for future development of the regional organic agriculture (OA) value chain.

Are farmers willing to take up agricultural innovations from scientists?While on the one hand scientists are often puzzled by the inability of smallholder farmers to adopt innovations that would help in eradicating poverty, farmers on the other hand seem to be amazed by the folly of scientists who unilaterally impose on them unaffordable technologies. Moreover, smallholder farmers believe they are sidelined by majority of African governments, particularly through under-investment in basic infrastructures and limited extension

services, which makes the transaction costs of agricultural production very high. High transaction costs of doing agriculture, poor communication of scientists to farmers and disregard of their innate wealth of indigenous knowledge, biological resources, practices and traditional innovations has resulted into failure by smallholder farmers to take up majority of scientific innovations to the disappointment of many scientists, extension agent and policy makers. The high transaction costs of doing agriculture coupled with limited accessibility of unprocessed products to lucrative markets is a big disincentive to production using conventional technologies. For the same reasons, high input agriculture is not sustainable among smallholder farmers and has consistently failed as earlier manifested by inability of such farmers to embrace the green revolution in Africa.

How can we make this possible?Markets are the major drivers to intake of innovations by farmers. Therefore, to address the questions on how Uganda can increase its share of the global organic market, Makerere University through the ProGrOV project has adopted a multi-disciplinary and participatory research innovation and knowledge sharing approach with actors along the value chain from the farm to the market. For example, in an attempt to co-innovate with organic pineapple farmers in Kayunga and Luwero districts, a study conducted by Samuel Kabi, a PhD student at Makerere University, showed that mealybug pests, which cause extensive wilting to pineapples by transmitting mealybug wilt disease, can be controlled through intercropping pineapples with bananas. Use of flat pineapple beds where coffee husk mulch was not applied discouraged multiplication of the mealybug pests.

Along the value chain, large quantities of pineapple processing by-products such as pineapple peels and crown were found at processing and drying centres during the dry season. Ironically, this coincides with peak feed resource scarcity for dairy cattle. Muhammad Kiggundu, an MSc. Student of agriculture, was able to design a step by step guide with farmers for making silage feed for dairy cattle from pineapple processing by-products. Similarly, Sylvia Nalubwama, a PhD student spent 12 months with certified organic pineapple farmers who integrated dairy cattle with pineapples but who indicated that the major challenges faced were animal diseases and pests which were still controlled using conventional methods. Limited land, scanty knowledge on improved farm management and feed scarcity during dry season in a midst of plenty of pineapple processing by-products were also identified as major challenges. The student, therefore, harnessed the pineapple by-products turning it into silage feed and evaluated it as a potential feed for dairy cattle. The innovation of silage feed production from pineapple processing promotes integration of dairy cattle into pineapple production and supports a closed nutrient cycle in organic farms. It is also a classical example of turning trash into cash by farmers. This cash can be earned as a way of diversifying products from the pineapple as alternative sources of income in addition to the mainstream cash got from dried organic pineapples destined for export. There is, therefore, a potential by farmers to commercialize silage from pineapple by products based on research knowledge and skills generated by scientists while working with farmers. There is also potential for scientists to develop biological remedies (biorationals) to control ticks and internal worms as isolates from herbs found at

the farms which include Phytolacca dodecandra (African soapberry: Luwooko); Tephrosia vogelii (Tephrosia), Albizia antihelmintica (relative to Mugavu) and Lippia javanica (Lemon bush). All these are possible avenues of making money by all actors along the organic value chain.

How does organic agriculture contribute to health?It is true there has been a lot of debate as to whether organic farming can sustain food security just like there has been debates on how dependence on conventional agriculture characterized by high input of agricultural chemicals negatively impacts on the welfare, poor human nutrition, increased costs for public health and vulnerability to external shocks. Promotion of consumption of organic products at local, regional and international levels will not only cut down on the cost for public health but will also attract money into Uganda through global OA. Non-communicable diseases such as cancer and non-insulin dependent diabetes mellitus (Type II) are on the rise among communities. The medical personnel are not so sure about the exact triggers of the surge of incidences but they cannot rule out nutrition and lifestyle changes. It is, however also possible that food contaminated with either agricultural pesticide residues or aflatoxins due to poor chemical use and poor post-harvest handling could be polluting the environment and causing such a surge. Similarly, male sterility possibly due to low sperm count has also been documented by world health organization (WHO, 1990) as one of the effects of long term exposure to organophosphorus pesticides. There is also a potential cancer risk from ingesting certain pesticides. This is exacerbated by lack of information, knowledge and awareness plus lack of supervision of farmers especially in developing countries where most farmers are insufficiently educated in different methods of agricultural chemical handling and application. With continued awareness, organic agriculture will continue fetching high premium from consumers who get conscious about their health and very soon it will be “Kool” to eat organic in local and regional markets just like it is in developed countries.

What is the policy environment?The national organic agriculture policy has remained in draft form on the shelves in the ministry of agriculture and at NOGAMU for a while. However, working with the three national organic movements of Kenya, Tanzania and Uganda, Makerere University with its regional partners has generated knowledge needed to inform the national policies on organic agriculture.

ConclusionCan the sleeping giants in Uganda be awakened by the wall of money which is about to collapse from the global organic sector!! The answer lies in the preparedness of government of Uganda and all stakeholders to make the right choices informed by research in order to reduce on the transaction costs along the organic value chain. Favourable OA policy environment and strong institutional arrangement including cooperatives to solve market access challenges is quintessential in driving the sub-sector that favours the majority of smallholder farmers.

Authored by Fred Kabi An Associate Professor, College of Agricultural and

Environmental ScienceMakerere University.

Awakening the sleeping giants through organic agriculture