Bukonzo farmers
Bukonzo Farmers, coffee, Uganda (producer)
Based in the Kasese region of Uganda, Bukonzo Organic Farmers Cooperative Union (BOCU) is a coffee co-operative made up of over 3,000 smallholder farmers among 13 smaller co-operatives in the Rwenzori Mountains, where they produce high quality, organically grown, handpicked coffee.
Bukonzo began as a group of six organic coffee farmers who were keen to enrich the environmental awareness of their community and improve the financial return on their crop.
InvestShared Interest and Bukonzo
Bukonzo became a Shared Interest customer in 2014 and has since used our finance to build up stock levels for buyers to export and support their growth. In this time, the co-operative's membership has increased by over 60% and its processing capacity has considerably developed.
The strong relationship we have built with BOCU has enabled us to respond to challenges they have faced. In 2020, BOCU suffered severe flooding, resulting in the destruction of coffee farms and members’ homes.
Shared Interest Foundation stepped in to assist through their Livelihood Security Fund, which the charity relaunched during the Covid-19 pandemic to support farmers in desperate need. This fund helps us support customers recover from unanticipated shocks outside of their control.
General Manager, Josinta Kabugho, said:
“The loan from Shared Interest has allowed us to double our coffee sales and pay the farmers on time. With the increased income from coffee sales, the farmers have been able to educate their children.”
Bukonzo is one of the few coffee co-operatives in Africa, which is managed by women.
Farming for the future
The co-operative has made a huge impact on the community, with local women in particular getting much more involved in coffee production.
Maureen Namusisi, Accountant at Bukonzo, said:
“Farmers are attracted to Bukonzo because of other activities; tree planting, passion fruit farming, and water harvesting tanks. Farmers hopeful they will also benefit. Hope keeps members at Bukonzo.”
Technical Assistance
Bukonzo’s growth includes the expansion of their staff and field officers who work directly with farmers to provide them with advice and guidance to build climate resilience, support income diversification, and improve their livelihoods.
Douglas Maate is a Field Extension Officer at Bukonzo and is responsible for providing extension services and training to 305 farmers from two of Bukonzo’s member co-operatives.
Douglas said:
“…my training to farmers is always hands on training. I talk and do what I say so that farmers can easily learn from what I am doing. And then we set targets after we have trained them.”
Douglas has worked at Bukonzo since 2017 and has observed its growth.
Douglas continued:
“I see how Bukonzo is involved in community mobilisation and Bukonzo has supported establishment and equipping of micro washing stations [with] pulpers and other accessories that help the farmers meet the quality standards of coffee.
Building Climate Resilience
Many farmers at Bukonzo farm on the hillside and are particularly vulnerable to the effects of climate change. To support these farmers to build climate resilience, Bukonzo launched an agroforestry scheme distributing shade trees to be planted on the coffee farms to increase soil stability, reduce top-soil run off during periods of heavy rain, and protect coffee trees from increasingly long period of sun.
In 2023 they distributed 250,000 shade trees and this year will distribute a further 40,000 trees alongside training in Climate Smart Agriculture. In 2021 Bukonzo also distributed clean energy cook stoves to 3,000 farmers to reduce the rate of deforestation for firewood and protect farmer health.
Changes in the climate have also exasperated the instances of new pests and diseases. In response to this, alongside training in pest management, Bukonzo has developed an innovate liquated pesticide made using an enzyme and locally available products.
Empowering Young People
Bukonzo recognise the importance of investing in the next generation of coffee farmers to ensure the sustainability of the organisation and have delivered several youth-focussed initiatives. Each micro washing station now employs a number of young people who have received support from Field Extension Officers to gain experience in buying coffee. As a result, Bukonzo have seen an improvement in record management from the washing stations, key in ensuring traceability.
Bukonzo also supported 10 young people to be trained in pest and disease management and organic pesticide production. This was part of a funded programme in partnership with Makerere University and Agribusiness Initiative Trust (aBi). These youth now provide training to Bukonzo’s farmers who pay for this support and have created employment for themselves through the establishment of informational clinics.
Community Support
The Fairtrade Premium has contributed towards the establishment of community development initiatives and improved support for farmers.
Using the premium, Bukonzo has supported the construction of washrooms for primary schools benefitting the children of their members. Through establishing water harvesting tanks at the community level coffee washing stations, they have also extended water into these communities benefitting households, irrespective if they are a member of Bukonzo.
Gender Equality
There is growing global evidence of women owning or co-owning their farms and managing their own land. This is good news as research indicates that unequal ownership affects women’s ability to access, use, control, and benefit from land, thereby limiting their economic empowerment and financial security. The United Nations’ Food and Agriculture Organization estimates that closing the gender gap in agriculture would reduce the number of undernourished people by up to 150 million.
As Josinta says:
“Gender equality is important because there is equal access to resources, which promotes empowerment.”
Josinta describes her role as being responsible for overseeing all of the day-to-day activities.
She explained:
“I have not had challenges but opportunities as being a woman leader; partners have been motivated to partner with BOCU because of the trust that women have. I have seen myself being confident in doing co-operative activities and the members have built trust in me.”
Josinta explained that the co-operative takes a family-led approach to safeguarding farming for the next generation.
She said:
Back to map“We are proud to make sustainability the focus for all of our activities and there is an abundance of life and diversity to be found on our farms. We have initiated savings and lending associations for men, women and youth, energy saving stoves for households, water harvesting tanks benefiting the households and trainings also are targeted to men, women and youth.”
The impact of Covid-19
Bukonzo was one of the first producer groups to supplement government supplies using their Fairtrade Premium. In response to the pandemic, they have donated sugar, maize flour, cooking oil, beans and soap to the local government taskforce.
Tragically, since hearing of Bukonzo’s efforts in helping the local community, we received news that they were facing life-threatening weather conditions due to heavy rainfall, which has caused severe flooding to the Kasese District.
Josinta told us:
“Following heavy rains from the Rwenzori Mountains, five rivers simultaneously burst their banks at around 2am on 7th May. We believe that 1,200 Bukonzo farmers have been affected in Kisinga, Kyondo, Kyarumba, and Maliba.
“The situation of the displaced in these areas is serious, many homes are concentrated villages which are in the low lands and along the river basins - they are now completely flooded. The Kasese District Disaster Team is reported to have registered over 35,000 displaced families, with some sleeping in the open air.
“Families reported that the floods were seen at night, which was very threatening to them and most of the properties were swept away. They had nowhere to run, since they could not tell the direction of the water. “The piped water to some communities is blocked and now people do not have access to drinking water so they are made to move long distances to search for clean water. “The farmers lost coffee and also food crop fields, therefore, food packs will be a high need and materials for shelter.”
Following this, Bukonzo became the first beneficiary of our charitable arm, Shared Interest Foundation's Livelihood Security Fund.
GENDER EQUALITY: FOR A PEACEFUL, PROSPEROUS AND SUSTAINABLE WORLD
There is growing global evidence of women owning or co-owning their farms and managing their own land. This is good news as research indicates that unequal ownership affects women’s ability to access, use, control, and benefit from land, thereby limiting their economic empowerment and financial security. The United Nations’ Food and Agriculture Organization estimates that closing the gender gap in agriculture would reduce the number of undernourished people by up to 150 million.
As Josinta Kabugho, General Manager at BOCU (Bukonzo Organic Farmers Cooperative Union) says: “Gender equality is important because there is equal access to resources, which promotes empowerment.”
Josinta describes her role as being responsible for overseeing all of the day-to-day activities. She explained: “I have not had challenges but opportunities as being a woman leader; partners have been motivated to partner with BOCU because of the trust that women have. I have seen myself being confident in doing co-operative activities and the members have built trust in me.”
Josinta explained that the co-operative takes a family-led approach to safeguarding farming for the next generation. She said: “We are proud to make sustainability the focus for all of our activities and there is an abundance of life and diversity to be found on our farms.
“We have initiated savings and lending associations for men, women and youth, energy saving stoves for households, water harvesting tanks benefiting the households and trainings also are targeted to men, women and youth.”
We asked Josinta what she would say to young women who want to work in the coffee sector. She replied: “I would
encourage the young women to work in the coffee industry for sustainability because most of the people involved are becoming old and if they are not replaced by the younger generation then the coffee industry would be at a stake in the future. I would also encourage them to take leadership positions so that the women can also come up as successful leaders.”