Activity Reports

BUKONZO ORGANICS FARMERS COOPERATIVE UNION LTD:
Reg. No.8861/Rcs
P.O.BOX, 278, KASESE-UGANDA:
Tel: +256753273084
EMAIL: bukonzo_org@yahoo.com
REPORT ABOUT SHARE HOLDERS AS OF 2008.


• ANALYSIS DONE BY: KRC
• SUPPORTED BY: HIVO, S – NETHERLAND.









Table of Contents
Demographical Data on Farmers in Cooperatives 1
Table 1: Cooperative union Members 1
Distribution according to contractual Status 1
Figure 1: Proportions of Farmers according contract 2
Table 2: Contracted Farmers according to Cooperative 2
Table 3: Farmers not yet contracted 3
Productivity of Coffee generally 3
Figure 2: Distribution of Farmers according to Productivity of their Coffee Trees 3
Table 4: Total coffee Trees Owners Irrespective on Contractual Status 4
Table 5: Total No. of Coffee Trees by Contractual Status 4
Output Levels 5
Table 6: Output by Contractual Status 5
Farm Ownership 6
Figure 3: Categories of Farm ownership 6
Animals and Birds Kept 7
Table 7: Distribution of Farmers by Animals and Birds owned at household level 7
Methods Used to manage Animals and Birds 7
Figure 4: Methods used to Manage Animals 8
Figure 5: Treatment methods by Contractual Status of Farmers 8
Table 8 : Names of Data Collectors 9











Demographical Data on Farmers in Cooperatives
The farmers belonging to seven primary cooperatives supported by Bukonzo organics by 2008 were as presented in Table 1: these cooperatives include; Burangwa Isuka ningabu, Ikongo Farmers marketing and processing cooperative, Kabingo thukolethuthi, Kyamankungu cooperative, Kyempara Farmers cooperative, Kyondo organic and Nyabirongo cooperative.

Table 1: Cooperative union Members
Names of Cooperatives No. of Farmers Percent
Burangwa Isuka ningabu 90 6.7%
Ikongo Farmers marketing and processing cooperative 200 14.9%
Kabingo thukolethuthi 210 15.6%
Kyamankungu cooperative 113 8.4%
Kyempara Farmers cooperative 52 3.9%
Kyondo organic 527 39.3%
Nyabirongo cooperative 150 11.2%
Total 1342 100.0%
From table 1, it can be seen that in total Bukonzo organic supports 1342 farmers, of which about 39% belong to Kyondo organic cooperative, followed by Kabingo thukolethuthi accounting for about 16%, Ikongo Farmers marketing and processing cooperative 15%, Nyabirongo cooperative 11%, Kyamankungu cooperative about 8% and Burangwa Isuka ningabu about 7% while Kyempara Farmers cooperative has only about 4%.
Distribution according to contractual Status
Categorizing farmers supported according to contractual status at cooperative level revealed that there were two categorizes of farmers i.e. contracted and those that were not contracted. In general, it can be seen that most, 57% of the farmers are not contracted, while 43% are contracted. However, according to the records there are 502 contracted, implying that 19 farmers have registered more than one field in the database as indicated in figure 1.

Figure 1: Proportions of Farmers according contract


Table 2 presents the contracted farmers by cooperatives while table 3 gives the non contracted farmers.
Table 2: Contracted Farmers according to Cooperative
Names of Cooperatives No. of Farmers Percent
Ikongo Farmers marketing and processing cooperative 35 6.7
Kabingo thukolethuthi 118 22.6
Kyamankungu cooperative 69 13.2
Kyempara Farmers cooperative 45 8.6
Kyondo organic 186 35.7
Nyabirongo cooperative 68 13.1
Total 521 100.0
As observed in table 2, majority of the contracted farmers belong to Kyondo organic accounting for about 36% of them, followed by Kabingo thukolethuthi with about 23%, Kyamankungu cooperative 13%, Nyabirongo cooperative, 13% followed by others as presented in the table. However, by 2008, Burangwa Isuka ningabu did not have any contracted farmer.
Among the non contracted farmers, again Kyondo generally had more farmers as compared to other cooperatives as presented in Table 3.
Table 3: Farmers not yet contracted
Cooperative No. of farmers Percent
Burangwa Isuka ningabu 90 13.2
Ikongo Farmers marketing and processing cooperative 161 23.6
Kabingo thukolethuthi 14 2.1
Kyamankungu cooperative 26 3.8
Kyempara Farmers cooperative 2 0.3
Kyondo organic 320 46.9
Nyabirongo cooperative 69 10.1
Total 682 100.0

Productivity of Coffee generally
Assessing the productivity of coffee trees indicates that farmers had two categories of coffee trees i.e. the productive one and the non productive. Figure 2 presents all the farmers by productivity of their coffee trees.

Figure 2: Distribution of Farmers according to Productivity of their Coffee Trees

As seen from Fig. 2, out of 1178 farmers working with Bukonzo organics, 66% had both productivity and non productive coffee trees , 32% had purely productive while 24% had only non productive coffee trees on their farm.
Also assessing the total coffee trees both productive and non productive, revealed the following presented in Table 4.

Table 4: Total coffee Trees Owners Irrespective of Contractual Status
Aspect No. of Farmers Minimum Maximum Total No. of trees Average trees
Productive trees 1316 4 2,668 317,069 240.9
Non productive trees 958 1 1,846 71,310 74.4
Total trees 1 2,668 388,379 300.6

As observed in Table 4, there were a total of 317,069 productive trees from 1316 farmers with an average of about 241 trees per farmer. While as the non productive trees were 71,310 in total, giving a percentage of about 14% from the overall coffee trees possessed by the farmers in the cooperatives.
Categorizing coffee tree productivity by contractual status of the farmers is as presented in table 5.
Table 5: Total No. of Coffee Trees by Contractual Status
Status Aspect No. of Farmers Minimum Maximum Total No. of trees Average trees
Contracted Productive trees 508 4 2,038 109,536 215.6
Non productive trees 362 2 1846 27,581 76.2
Non contracted Productive trees 669 7 2668 165,211 247.0
Non productive trees 521 1 1800 36,759 70.6

Output Levels
Data on output was also collected based on the previous harvest (in first season of 2008) and what was expected according to the farmers’ own projections. Table 6 presents the data including overall production and average individual farmer produce.
Table 6: Output by Contractual Status
Status Output No. of Farmers Minimum Maximum Total output in Kg Average output in Kg
Contacted farmers Previous output 502 2 3,030 39,925 79.5
Expected output 505 0 900 48,558 96.2
Non contracted Previous output 665 0 420 46,077 69.3
Expected output 669 2 1,000 53,544 80.0

As it can be seen in table 6, there was generally better production from the contracted farmers based on the previous and expected production as on average, among the contracted farmers, each farmer produced about 80 kilograms in the previous season as compared to about 69 kilograms produced non contracted farmers. Also, their projections show better output among the contracted farmers with an average of about 96 kilograms as compared to 80 kilograms among the non contracted farmers despite having more coffee trees. This implies that there is better care taken by contracted farmers for their coffee as compared to the non contracted ones.








Farm Ownership
Looking at the farm ownership, it was observed that there were two categories of ownership namely, on individual basis and co-owned farms by especially husband and wife or wives as presented in Figure 2
Figure 3: Categories of Farm ownership

As observed in fig 3, 79% of the farms are co-owned while 21% were individually owned.









Animals and Birds Kept
Information on the animals and birds kept as supplements to organic materials used in farming was collected and table 7 presents the proportions of framers by the category of animal and bird owned at household level.
Table 7: Distribution of Farmers by Animals and Birds owned at household level
Categorizes of Animals & Birds Number of Farmers Percentage
Chicken only 107 8.0
Cows only 19 1.4
Cows & goats 7 0.5
Darks only 7 0.5
Goats only 689 51.3
Goats & chicken 32 2.4
Goats & Chicken & pigs 16 1.2
Goats & Cows 1 0.1
Goats & pigs 91 6.8
Goats & sheep 4 0.3
Goats & sheep & pig 1 0.1
Guinea pigs only 4 0.3
Nothing 9 0.7
Pigs only 327 24.3
Pigs & chicken 5 0.4
Picklocks & chicken 1 0.1
Rabbits only 7 0.5
Sheep only 14 1.0
Sheep & pig 2 0.1
Turkeys only 1 0.1
Total 1344 100.0
The study shows that 99.3% of the farmers supported by Bukonzo organics in promoting organic farming have at least either an animal or a domestic bird for manure. It was also seen that over 60% of the farmers had at least a goat while those with strictly only goats were 51% of farmers. This is following by those with only chicken only represented by 8% of total farmers. Other animals and birds owned are as seen in Table 7.
Methods Used to manage Animals and Birds
Assessing how farmers managed their animals and birds revealed that 61.3% used the tethering method, 28.2% used the zeroing as seen on Figure 4.



Figure 4: Methods used to Manage Animals


Different varieties of feeds where provided to animals and birds mainly organic in nature including among others: potatoes’ and banana peelings, elephant grass, gwatama5la, caliandra, maize brand and cassava leaves.
It was also looked at how farmers treated their animals and birds in case of disease outbreak. It was seen that farmers mainly applied to two methods treatment namely, use of natural herbs and through main stream medication via the veterinary doctors as presented in Figure 5.
Figure 5: Treatment methods by Contractual Status of Farmers


As it be observed among contracted farmers, 92.6% use natural herbs to treat their animals and birds while 4.7% use veterinary services and 2.8% had not experience disease problems yet. However among the non contracted farmers about 87% used natural herbs, 8.6% used veterinary services and 4.2 had experience sickness challenges.
Table 8: Names of Data Collectors
Name No. of Farmers Percentage
Baluku James 116 8.6
Baluku Edson Raaha 50 3.7
Baluku Josephat 2 0.1
Baluku Julius 52 3.9
Biira Jolly 9 0.7
Bwambale Emmy 94 7.0
Bwambale Matiya 79 5.9
Bwambale Yofesi 47 3.5
Ignatious 1 0.1
Kabugho Jaremia 52 3.9
Kana kalere Philip 50 3.7
Karabyo Agnes 50 3.7
Kenja meresi 50 3.7
Masereka Exaviour 76 5.7
masereka Milton 98 7.3
Masereka Rauben 44 3.3
Maserelka Matia 7 .5
Mbusa Ignaatious 101 7.5
Mudaaki .B.William 53 3.9
Muhindo B. Robert 41 3.1
Munda Alamira Manday 49 3.6
Police Apuuli 73 5.4
Samson Kikoma 48 3.6
Thembo Geoge 48 3.6
Thembo William 54 4.0
Total 1344 100.0