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Background

Cotton has grown in Uganda for over 100 years and is currently cultivated by 250,000 families. High quality cotton was produced throughout the colonial period with post-colonial production levels reaching 500,000 bales per annum in the 1960's and 1970's. During the troubled political climate of the 1980's the entire market collapsed with yields plummeting to 100,000 bales per annum.

In 1999 the USAID funded Investment in Developing Export Agriculture (IDEA) project began working with local ginners who raised $80,000 of their own capital to support IDEA technical assistance. In a short period of time, farmers were able to increase their yields three fold using low input intervention techniques and five fold using high input techniques. As the program expanded, the USAID funded Support for Private Enterprise Expansion and Development (SPEED) project adapted their highly successful enterprise linkage model to the cotton sector. In conjunction with IDEA technical assistance, four targeted ginneries were involved in extension efforts that allowed for significant increases in yields at the smallholder level.

APEP Interventions

The approach of APEP is reflective of  the complexities associated with rapid growth in the cotton sector from the both the technical support and organizational and policy standpoint. As the underlying theme of APEP cotton interventions is a commitment to cotton by farmers regardless of market variations, the establishment of a culture of confidence in the cotton sector from the smallholder producer level through the ginnery level is critical.

The success of the SPEED and IDEA interventions made clear the need for a formalized zoning structure within the cotton industry.  This system is required to ensure that ginners receive proportional benefits as a result of their participation in cotton extension activities. In collaboration with the Ugandan Cotton Development Organization (CDO) lead ginners were identified for each of the eight cotton producing zones. Lead ginners then established collaborative agreements with support ginners located in their respective zones. These agreements established a cotton quota for each ginnery that is monitored on a weekly basis throughout the harvest.  Additionally, APEP is working with ginneries and the CDO to establish a Ugandan market price for cotton that will maintain a high level of confidence in the industry by smallholders. 

To achieve anticipated cotton production levels of 300,000 bales of cotton per year by the end of the project, APEP has trained zonal, area and site coordinators on the establishment of  field demonstrations sites with lead farmers. Each one acre demonstration site is divided into two sections. One half serves as the low input block, where no additional inputs are applied apart from seed and pesticides. The low input block emphasizes principal agronomic practices, such as timely planting, spacing, thinning, weeding and effective pest control. The other half of the demonstration site consists of the high input block. In addition to the techniques applied in the low input block, herbicides and fertilizers are used. Farmers in the high input block also use a battery powered micron sprayer as well as integrated pest management techniques.

Through September of 2004 APEP has exposed 121,346 farmers to improved cotton production techniques through demonstration sites. 

Related Cotton Resources