dfcu Bank is set to ride on its past success in financing the agriculture sector to commit more funds meant to achieve long term productivity for farmers in Uganda.
Speaking at the launch of the 10th edition of the Best Farmers’ Competition at Sight Farm in Namulonge, Wakiso District, Annette Kiconco, the dfcu Chief Retail Banking Officer said, the bank is in for the long haul with its agribusiness financing facilities and solutions for farmers in specific niches such as perennial or annual crops, poultry, or beef as well as distribution.
dfcu joined other patners including Vision Group, The Embassy of the Netherlands, KLM Airlines, and Koudjis Nutrition BV, to launch the Best Farmers’ Competition at Henry Lugolobi’s modern farm that is involved in dairy farming, pastures production and agro- tourism.
Mr Lugolobi’s farm emerged as the first runner- up in the 2023 Best Farmers’ Competition.
The farm has worked with international breeders to develop a modern diary production breeding system to achieve daily production of 200 litres per day from 10 cows consumed mainly within the Gayaza community.
dfcu Bank which is a major funder of the competition, has also through a partnership with Rabo Foundation established the Agribusiness Development Center with an aim of transforming the way agriculture is practiced in Uganda.
Ms Kiconco shared that the bank has so far invested USD 17.2 million (UGX 65 billion) worth of credit linkages among other achievements.
“Through our Agribusiness Development Center, we have so far trained 885 enterprises; we have had 17,574 female beneficiaries in different programs, 3,935 small holder farmers linked to We also launched an online platform called Soma-Online where we are equipping over 5,000 learners”, she said.
Kiconco also thanked the partners for the continued support to the competition, and reaffirmed dfcu’s commitment to transforming lives and businesses in Uganda by supporting the agriculture sector.
Don Wanyama, The Vision Group CEO expressed his gratitude to the partners for their continued support to the ompetition encouraging farmers to embrace the spirit of working together through cooperatives.
Wanyama said that cooperatives make it easier for farmers to access services such as training, affordable inputs, and better bargaining power for their produce.
The Koudijs Animal Nutrition B.V Sales Manager, Johan Verhoek said, the farmers competition is one of the main highlights that creates eagerness in obtaining farm knowledge.
“We see development of farms around Uganda not only for dairy farms but also poultry, piggery. Farmers are not only important for food production but also to create value for the national economy,” he said.
2024 marks 10 years since the competition started and an emphasis on the concept of value addition has been earmarked as a theme, and all nominees will be required to demonstrate how they add value to their farm products. The theme is meant to encourage farmers improve on their post- harvest handling mechanisms.
So far, it has produced 111 winners, with 97 of them participating in the extensive weeklong training in the Netherlands.
The competition over the years has seen an increase in production on farms across the country.
This year, the competition will put emphasis on value addition, and all the winners from the different sub regions will be required to demonstrate how they add value to their products. The competition hopes to encourage proper post-harvest handling to maximize value from the farm outputs.