Bees for Business: Uganda

In western Uganda, over 90% of smallholder farmers depend on coffee as their main source of income. However, the impacts of climate change increasingly threaten coffee production in the region. 

Meanwhile, many farmers harvest their coffee before it is ripe for income to meet their immediate needs. However, this decreases coffee quality and value, reducing the income of the farmer and volume of saleable coffee received by the co-operative.

Our Bees for Business projects aim to work with local co-operatives to help farmers diversify into beekeeping, building their knowledge, skills, confidence and financial resilience with an additional source of income.

We are currently delivering two Bees for Business projects in Uganda. View them in more detail below.

Bees for Business: Rwenzori

Location: Kasese District, western Uganda

Date: January 2024 - June 2025

Participants: 141 coffee farmers

Partners: Bukonzo Organic Co-operative Union (Bukonzo)

Summary: Through this project, each farmer has received modern beehives, beekeeping skills training and business management training delivered by Bunyangabu Beekeepers, a locally based beekeeping co-operative. 

Training has also been delivered to Bukonzo Field Officers and project staff in beekeeping management, building the internal capacity of the cooperative ensuring they can provide support as required to the farmers, and expand the activity to new communities.

Image: Project participants in beekeeping suits.

Bees for Business: Kabwohe

Location: Kabwohe, Uganda

Timeline: January 2024 - January 2025

Participants: 210 coffee farmers

Partners: Banyankole Coffee Services (BCS)

Summary: This project has equipped coffee farmers with beekeeping skills, tools and equipment to set up a beekeeping enterprise to increase their income.

Agroforestry trees will be distributed to project participants for planting in their coffee farms. Placing hives in coffee farms will increase coffee yield through cross pollination from bees.

Image: Jackson Mvyambi pictured with his wife Sylvia on their coffee farm in western Uganda.

Improving Livelihoods through agro-processing

Location: Samogohiri, Burkina Faso.

Date: February 2022 to February 2025.

Participants: 90 female shea nut collectors.

Partners: Platforme Nationale du Commerce Equitable Burkina Faso (PNCE-B) and COPRONOS, a local shea and nut co-operative.

Project Details: This 12-month value addition project enhanced the economic resilience of 50 female shea nut collectors in southern Burkina Faso.

In 2024, with additional funding from the Evan Cornish Foundation, this project was extended to support a further 40 women with training and equipment to produce shea butter.

Image: Participants of Shared Interest Foundation's Improving Livelihoods through Agro-processing project.

Increasing the profitability and sustainability of producer groups through technical assistance

Location: Peru, Nicaragua, Mexico, Ivory Coast, Rwanda and Uganda.

Date: January 2024 to January 2025.

Participants: 21 co-operatives and producer organisations.

Partners: COLEAD (Africa) and a Peruvian Consultant.

Project details: This 12-month pilot project is focused on building the capacity of 21 co-operatives across Africa and Latin America to enable them to increase their profitability, sustainability and better meet the needs of their member producers.

These organisations produce a variety of commodities, including coffee, cocoa, honey and hibiscus. These organisations also are all being supported through finance from Shared Interest Society.

Image: A member of Sacacli, a Nicaraguan coffee co-operative, Shared Interest customer and participant of this Technical Assistance project.

Increasing the resilience of coffee farming households through income diversification

Location: Rwenzori, Uganda 

Duration: April 2021 - March 2023

Participants: 365 coffee farmers

Partners: Bukonzo Organic Farmers Cooperative Union (BOCU)

Summary: In rural Uganda, passion fruit farming has played an important role in supporting coffee farmers to diversify their income sources. 

This diversification has not only increased household resilience but has also led to improvements in their coffee production. 

Image: Joel Bwambale, a coffee farmer of Bukonzo, picks passion fruit on his farm in Uganda.