GRAIN STORAGE FACILITIES
In order to increase national gains in agriculture especially for smallholder farmers, National Agricultural Advisory Services (NAADS) Secretariat and World Food Programme (WFP) came into partnership under a Memorandum of Understanding (“MOU”) to jointly address identified gaps in food storage capacity, post-harvest losses eradication, value addition and collective marketing systems, besides improving access to agro-inputs in selected parts of the country.
Eleven (11) community grain stores have since been constructed in 10 districts across the country and are now complete and operational. Through this partnership, the NAADS Secretariat and WFP intend to continue the establishment of additional community stores and capacity building for the beneficiary farmers.
The support is in line the government initiative to reduce post-harvest losses and improve the quality of grain produced in Uganda. It is also in line with the WFP 2018 – 2022 Country Strategic Plan for Uganda and in pursuit of an integral programming approach to address food gaps and strengthen the resilience of vulnerable, food insecure communities and populations.
Selection of beneficiaries involves joint field missions between NAADS and WFP is conducted as a reconnaissance to site beneficiary communities and potential of proposed beneficiary groups to run the stores on business principles.
Criteria of selecting beneficiaries
- The selected districts should have farmer groups that are engaged in maize/grain value chain on commercial basis
- The capability of the farmer groups to run the stores on business principles
- The district local governments through their respective sub-county leaderships should have committed land and any administrative and technical support