Uganda Smallholder Farmer Livelihoods Initiative

In Uganda, more than two million smallholder farmers rely on coffee and sesame for their livelihoods. However, many live below the living wage level, due to poor productivity, low crop quality and crop failure, as well as limited access to markets and little diversification of farm enterprises. These factors, together with climate change, have greatly affected the livelihoods of farming communities.

In 2023, ECOM’s Kawacom Uganda Ltd partnered with the US Agency for International Development (USAID) to implement the Uganda Smallholder Farmer Livelihoods Initiative to mitigate these challenges. The project aims to increase exports of coffee and sesame from Uganda, especially to the growing US market.

The project’s key objectives were to connect 10,000 new sesame and coffee farmers to the export market and assist them to achieve Organic, Rainforest Alliance (RA) and Starbucks’ Coffee and Farmer Equity (C.A.F.E.) Practices certification.

By the end of the year, 10,836 new farmers (6,811 men and 4,025 women) had been onboarded. We also renewed Organic and RA certificates for 31,191 existing sesame and coffee farmers (21,335 men and 9,856 women).

Additionally, 182 coffee and sesame farmers (152 men and 30 women) were selected to be demonstration hosts to support the capacity building of farmers in GAPs. This enabled us to provide GAP training to 22,814 farmers (15,883 men and 6,931 women), who are currently undergoing Organic and RA certification.

To ensure the quality of coffee and sesame, and reduce side selling (when farmers sell products outside regular channels), we established 193 buying units and built a warehouse to store produce from project participants. This has resulted in increased purchases from farmers as well as higher export volumes and sales. Two sesame seed multiplication centres have also been established to provide high-quality seeds for farmers in 2024, helping to boost their productivity and resilience.