Capacity and organizational deficiencies in the effort of Ugandan farmer groups to supply beans and maize—the perspective of a large buyer

It is generally thought that farmers who supply large trading companies in Uganda often get an unfair price for their produce. The traders, in turn, sell the produce to large buyers, making a descent profit. Through the agriculture and marketing support project at the World Food Programme (WFP)-Uganda, there is an initiative to assist small-scale farmer groups in selling maize and beans (and sometimes sorghum) directly to large buyers such as WFP. WFP procured nearly 3,100 MT directly from smallscale farmers during 2003, about 3% of the total Ugandan procurement (the rest coming from larger suppliers). WFP would like to see at least 10% of its total in-country procurement come from small-scale farmers. However, farmers and farmer groups have difficulty meeting proper quantity and quality standards, making it difficult to sell produce to WFP. Farmers are constrained by improper post-harvest handling methods, poor access to financial capital, minimal organizational capacity, and unfamiliarity with WFP bidding procedures. WFP and key implementing partners address some of these issues by supporting initiatives to train farmer groups in post-harvest handling, storing commodities, understanding market information, and forming farmer groups. Additional market pressures may make it necessary for farmers to improve the overall quality of their produce—requiring farmer groups to be better managed, have easier access to financial capital, and have the ability to add value to their product closer to where harvesting takes place.