KAMPALA – The Africa Farmer Organisation of the Year Awards (AFOYA) announced last week in Accra, Ghana that the National Union of Coffee Agribusinesses and Farm Enterprises ( NUCAFE ) is the continent’s best in Income Diversity.
The local body beat three other organisations because of the benefits of bringing smallholder farmers together, nurturing them into practicing farming as enterprises and helping them to leverage on the Farmer Ownership Model (FOM).
AFOYA is a unique awards programme designed to reward and promote successful farmer organisations in Africa. The main objective of the awards programme is to showcase and support the roles that farmer organisations play in promoting sustainable agriculture and ensuring food security in Africa.
It is organised by the African Investment Climate Research (AFRICRES) in partnership with the Alliance for a Green Revolution in Africa (AGRA) and national and regional farmer organisations throughout Africa.
During a press briefing in Kampala last week, NUCAFE chairman Gerald Ssendawula said FOM is based on the farmer group-association framework with the objective of supporting coffee farmers to organise themselves to assume as many roles as possible and be masters of their own destiny along the coffee value chain.
NUCAFE is National Union of Coffee Agribusinesses and Farm Enterprises. It was founded in 1995 as the Uganda Coffee Farmers Association (UCFA). In 2003, UCFA changed name to NUCAFE in response to members’ needs as a result of needs assessment and strategic planning carried out in year 2003.
Established in 2008, Alliance for a Green Revolution in Africa (AGRA) is an Africa based organization working in partnership with governments, agricultural research organizations, farmers, private sector, civil society and other rural development stakeholders to significantly and sustainably improve the productivity and incomes of resource poor farmers in Africa.
AGRA’s vision is a food secure and prosperous Africa achieved through rapid, sustainable agricultural growth based on smallholder farmers.
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