Africa-Press – Uganda. Stakeholders in Uganda’s horticulture sector are set to meet for a two day convention that will among others discuss challenges and way forward for the sector, officials have said.
According to Annette Kawooya Boogere from TechnoServe Uganda, the convention that the two-day event that runs between June 11 and 12 at Kampala Serena Hotel is dedicated to promoting inclusive growth, innovation, and market competitiveness in Uganda’s horticulture sector.
She noted that the convention will bring together over 100 stakeholders from the horticulture industry to share best practices and explore collaborative strategies to tackle the sector’s ongoing challenges.
“The convention comes in a time when there are several projects being supported by the donor world but the donor world is crumbling. It’s an opportunity for stakeholders in the horticulture sector to rethink how they can continue with agriculture without or minimal support from the donor world,” Mrs Boogere said.
“Let’s look at business opportunities instead of looking at donations. Yeah. So when we come in this case and we know the challenges, we can rethink this whole sector and how it can be self-sustaining without necessarily depending on donors.”
Currently, a number of projects supported by USAID are being terminated or face funding freezes following US President Donald Trump’s directive.
These cuts are affecting various sectors in the country.
According to TechnoServe Uganda’s official, the horticulture sector has not been spared, noting that the 2025 convention will seek to discuss solutions to the funding cuts.
Horticulture Market Accelaration Program
Mrs Boogere said the 2025 convention will also share insights and lessons from the Horticulture Market Acceleration Program(HortiMAP), a four-year project implemented by TechnoServe Uganda and funded by the Embassy of the Kingdom of Netherlands aimed at improving farmer livelihoods, boost household nutrition, and create jobs in Uganda’s horticulture sector.
The program is operating in 33 districts across the Elgon and Kigezi regions and the Lake Victoria crescent.
“As we come to the end of this project, we are planning to put up the results of the work that we have done. We are looking at creating a forum where people get to know what has been done in the sector, what the challenges are, but we’re also opening up a new platform for people who are interested in funding, supporting and being part of this sector. So this convention brings together different players. It brings together donors. It brings together the players in the market, small and medium enterprises, people who are actors. And it’s an open space for people to interact. Enjoy the space, but also get to know what is in there, especially the smallholder farmers,”Mrs Boogere said.
She explained that program involved supporting farmers to improve their income improve their income, their acreage, access to markets and access to finance, but also being able to do value addition.
“As a project, we’ve done capacity building, we’ve offered technical assistance and we have given access to finance and having the right markets.”
Mrs Boogere said the project also handled the issue of market for Ugandan fresh fruits and vegetables.
“When you look at a country like Uganda, we are called the market basket of the region but we lose a lot in wastage. It normally starts with our farmers who don’t look at the market first. So the first thing that we looked at was encouraging the farmers to first look at the market. We have our own domestic market, but it’s just disorganized. So one of the things that we tried to do was organize the production side so that it’s easily accessible by the market side,” she said.
She said apart from the local market, regional markets in Kenya, Tanzania, South Sudan and Rwanda can also be served as well as the international market.
According to Mrs Boogere, the convention will discuss all these insights and how local horticulture farmers can adopt them.
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