Commercializing chili production in Uganda

About the project

Country: Uganda

Period: January – August 2020

Project partners: Farm Africa and the North-Eastern Chili Producers Association (NECPA)

Objective: The GLOBALG.A.P. Secretariat partnered with Farm Africa – a charity that reduces poverty in rural eastern Africa by helping farmers boost yields, gain access to markets, and add value to their produce – and the NECPA to help Ugandan chili growers meet international buyers’ quality standards to capitalize on the growing demand for African bird’s eye chilies.

Approach: The GLOBALG.A.P. supported the project by training NECPA and Farm Africa staff on the GLOBALG.A.P. Integrated Farm Assurance (IFA) standard for fruit and vegetables and by giving staff the skills to train farmers to achieve GLOBALG.A.P. compliance. GLOBALG.A.P. provided mentorship to one staff member over a course of four months to enable the team to develop their quality management system (QMS).

SDGs addressed: #8 Decent work and economic growth

Outcome

GLOBALG.A.P. organized a training for 11 representatives of NECPA and Farm Africa to work in detail on the different modules of the IFA standard for fruit and vegetables. As one of the objectives was to set up a quality management system for group certification, an additional training was conducted on the GLOBALG.A.P. QMS and on internal inspections. This activity was followed by a 4-month mentorship in which a GLOBALG.A.P. trainer guided a staff member of Farm Africa in developing a group-specific quality management system to make sure that all producers under the system are growing their chilies according to the requirements set in the IFA standard. The success of the QMS now depends on incorporating the rules and procedures into the daily work.