During Research

On saturday ,kewerimide team[Isaac and Jonathan] together with irima team[Roy] took awalk to katwe ,to find out prices for some manual machines such as the grinders and the milling machine.
The machines were slightly expensive than what we expected.The machnics who assemble the machines said that the machine can be assembled to the site at acost less than that of transporting it.





We further traveled to owino market to physically see the grinders at work,we came across avariety of different colours for peanut butter being displayed for sell.we had to buy and then granted right of tasting the different colour.

Jinja agricultural show

As part of our endeavours to come up with the best and cheap technologies for product development while in Wajjala, we saw it fit to attend the Jinja agricultural show. while there we came across a variety of products and processing equipment that are cheap and applicable within the project. The show opened our eyes to the manual hand driven grinder, the portable solar drier, diferrent packaging materials and the costs of the ddifferent equipment.






The equipment were small scale but could be scaled up and upgraded for commercial production. the trip was an eye opener with alot new experiences attached to it, take for instance, it rained cats and dogs while we were there making the whole scene unbearable. amidsst all these trials and tribulations we managed to come up trumps although the expenses were more than we bargained for.the total expenditure far much exceeded the budgeted amount.

Kewerimide Team and posts held

Kewerimide food processing team is made up of five members as stupilated above .
the team looks forward to change the lives of wajjala farmers in terms of bring forward new ideas that will help them fight food insecurity.

Major crops grown by Kewerimide farmers

Wajjala farmers and some of their major crops grown.The kewerimide team discussed various products that could be produced basing on the available products.The farmers had to to vote for two major products by show of hand.thus came up with peanut butter having seen and tasted the sample we took to them and dried mangoes.





Travelling back to Nakasongola town from wajjala .though maize is one of their primary crop the idea of processing maize was not bought by the farmes.wajjala has a very fertile land has stuplated in the photo below.

POPULAR APPRAISAL THROUGH FOCUS GROUP DISCUSSIONS

On july 21st and 22nd we had the chance of meeting the Kewerimide marketing group in Kitaleba village, Wajjala parish, Lwampaga sub county, Nakasonggola district. The aim of the visit was to carry out focus group discussions to ascertain possible products that can be developed from the crop raw materials that the farmers have. The outcome was a surprise since the farmers seemed to have a few crops in season as most of the crops were out of season. The available crops to date were ground nuts (pea nuts), simsim, maize and cassava. the rest of the crops were out of season. the farmers were pretty interested in making mango juice although the mango season was almost was reaching a climax. We the Makerere team presented the potential products to the farmers and held a gruesome debate on what to produce as a team with the farmers. After two hours of fist fights and a democratic vote the farmers narrowed down on peanut butter with 60% vote and dried mango (fruits) with 70% vote. The experience from the field trip was tentalizing but I must say a physical demonstration product is of good use in case you are talking of developing a certain product. The farmers liked the peanut butter we presented such that they could not resist learning how to make it.

Some of the Potential Women in Wajjala Parish

As i was checking Sean's blog i came across some of the potential ladies of wajjala that we shall be working with .As i looked at the document most of them are mothers with kinds .

My special thanks goes to USAID for the great support put forward.

Meeting Held (3rd ,june,2008)

Last Week’s Meeting(3^rd ,June,2008)

During last week’s meeting everybody was given an opportunity to share there experience about the trip to Nakasongola,Kiralamba village. Each of us had a different experience to share though some were cutting across.

Some students confessed that, what they saw that day is what they had expected to find.

However, I was amazed by the willingness of the farmers to change there way of life. They were open enough to say out what there problems were. Ranging from limited market for there produce to the problems that affect there crops during the growing season. I noticed how farmers were upset by this year’s mango season. All the mangoes that they were harvesting were rotten and suggested that they need help on how they should prevent there mangoes from rotting while on the trees. One farmer on by the names of Ssenkungu George Williams had harvested good mangoes. All the rest were buying from him.

After a recap on the trip, we had to remind our selves of each others name, and on this very day we were joined by a new member Anita.

SWOT Analysis:

Later on we were introduced to the SWOT Analysis. With this we identified out strengths, weaknesses, opportunities that we had and threats that were bound to come aboard.

SWOT Analysis Diagram .

From that the day’s discussion, I learnt that we ought to use our strengths to change our weaknesses into opportunities in order to over come the threats.

We listed down the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats as listed below.

Strengths include:

Ready to learn

Determination

Availability of resources

Exposure

Diverse

Team work

Weaknesses include:

Preconceptions and attitudes

Adaptation to the communities

Knowledge that is already possessed by we the students

Poor communication skills

Flexibility

Language

Opportunities include:

Initial contact

Transforming our theoretical knowledge into application

Hands on exposure

Dealing with knowledgeable people(farmers)

Learning experience

Changing peoples lives for the better

Interacting with people (getting new ideas and improvement on our communication skills.

Working with NGOs

Develop simple technologies

Appreciate ther peoples abilities

Availability of raw materials, resources, etc.

Working together (as faculties and students)

Threats include:

Scarcity of portable water

Season ability of crops

Energy increasing expenses

Perishables

Group dynamics

Harsh climate

>Accessibility of the villages

Products

We went ahead to identify the products that we were to produce from the crops grown in Nakasongola.

These are some of the products that we identified.

Dried vegetables

Dried fruits

Kassedde( Potato chips)

Weaning foods

Orange sweet potato Composite flour

Jam

Cassava flour

Baked products (bread, cakes, buns, etc.)

Juice

Energy bar

Groups Formation

Michael and Yusuf formed the groups and each was assigned to a marketing group that they will be working with.

The three groups that were formed are to operate with the following marketing groups:

Kawerinmide Marketing Group

Lwampanga Sub-County

Wajjala Parish

Save extension worker: Henry – 0772613605.

Irima “Out of School Youth Group”

Kalungi Sub-County

Parish: ?

Save Extension Worker: Magoba Sarah - 0782925955

Katugo Marketing Group

Kakooge Sub-County

Parish:?

Save Extension Worker: Atwongyere Adeline – 0782530191

However, the student groups don’t have names so far. I challenge them to choose names for there groups for easy identification.

The student groups were given a task of identifying 3-4 possible products they would like to produce using the crops possessed by the marketing groups they are to work with.

I will be sharing with yopu what my group will be working on next time. Please all group leaders just let us know what your group will be working on.

Good luck to every one.