It was my first time visiting our Maize Farmers Cooperative and what a great day it was!
We began the day by taking the wrong road, causing us to be two hours late, but that definitely did not prove to be the trend of the day. Because this cooperative has not done the most stellar job of sending the required reports, up until now, I was expecting to find a failing project. Of course, Delphin (Pilot Light Program Director), had been there in January and we knew the factory still functioned, but we were not sure of how it was profiting or how the Village Savings and Loans groups were working.
It is not quite yet time for harvest, so the processing factory is not working, but the machine operator was kind enough to demonstrate for us how the machines take the maize kernels and cleans them, removes the skins and mills the kernels into flour of three different grades. No part of the maize is wasted. The husks are used for fertilizer and the skins are used to make what is called maize brander, an animal feed.
I learned something interesting today. Elephants are afraid of bees. Some of the farms butt up against Queen Elizabeth National Park and sometimes elephants will stray outside the park into neighboring farms and eat crops. Using bee hives as a boarder was suggested as a solution.
One farmer we spoke to, named Elias, told us that through cooperative loans, he was able to rent more land, produce more maize, mill it at the factory for a good price (the first 30 kg for free for personal consumption) and increase his income by double each harvest and that is just within the first year of the cooperative.
The cooperative board explained the challenges they are facing, reported on the successes and made some requests. They have promised to commit to reliable reporting moving forward. It is just a learning curve as the cooperative model was new to them.
We ate a delicious lunch outside the factory with the farmers, prepared by the village women, while listening to rain beating on the metal overhang above. It was a great day.
