Women Farmer groups Embrace ICT Skills

What was seen to be life of people in town became a reality in Kisanga Village- Karambi Sub county Kasese District where women farmers were introduced to ICT skills at grass root level has been impressed as idea for women farmer groups to market their produce.

On 23^rd and 24^th RIC-NET took ICT training to farmer groups in Bwera sub-region of Kasese District. The target was women groups dealing in the production of mainly food crops like maize, soya, beans G-nuts horticulture and other farmers of honey and coffee. The groups that impressed the training include, Kyempara Bee farmers Association which deal in the production of honey and honey wax , Karughe farmers Partnership which deal in the production of maize,coffee,G-nuts and Banana, St.Francis Women Group which deal in production of Maize, beans and G-nuts, Celak Bwera farmers group which deal in production of banana and pineapples, St.Marys Kisanga Women group which deal in G-nuts, coffee and , Karughe united women farmer group which produce banana and fruits and Kyambogho women Association who produce fruits, maize and G-nuts. All these groups are supported by Bwera information center an outreach center of RIC-NET in her outreach program to the farmers.

The training which was a follow up to the earlier trainings in basic computer skills that was conducted earlier on in May 2012 was finally rolled out with the visit to the farmer groups in the areas. Among the major issue was how ICT can be used in sourcing for information on better farming practices, crop pest and diseases and their control, new breeds of crops and access to market information [buyers of the different.

According to one Eliza Maguniha a member of Kisanga women group who are dealing in the production of soya and G-nuts, she mentioned that “this is like we have been covered in blankets for so long. We have worked together as a group of 30 women and we have been frustrated by price fluctuation and inadequate information on who can buy our crops, this is an opportunity for us to avoid middle men who have been giving us low prices for our produce. We can no deal with buyers from Kampala and bargain thoroughly for better prices”.

Farmers were introduced to basic skills on how to connect to different buyers of different crops in Uganda. This can be done by either using web based platforms of using the SMS system where  a farmer just type in a message on the mobile phone e.g. “go to messages on the phone, type PRICE leave space, name of the COMMODITY OR CROP, leave space NAME OF MARKET and send to 8555”. We hope by this new innovation the first of its kind in the region we shall help farmers and or provide direct linkage to market in and outside the region and thus helping in the struggle against poverty in the region and Uganda in general. We shall therefore be extending to other districts of Bundibugyo, Kamwenge, Kyenjonjo and Kyegegwa.