ACHIEVEMENTS

Since inception, Agro-Tourism Association has achieved immensely. Below is a summary of them.

1. Agro-Tourism Association (ATA) is proud to have championed Agro-Tourism Enterprise in Uganda and the African continent. Many stakeholders have been trained; awareness about Agro-Tourism created and many agribusiness players are now engaged in Agro-Tourism enterprise and their farm incomes have increased

• Agro-Tourism (Agriculture + Tourism) enterprise has been able to attract and retain youthful population in farming since they youth look at farming as a fun/joyful venture as opposed to the negative picture that has been portrayed about farming previously. Also these youth are able to earn an extra income to motivate them to continue engaging in the sector.

2. Contract Farming Initiative. ATA currently directly works with about 80,000 small holder farmers across the country on the contract basis. The organisation is proud to have initiated a contract farming arrangement in;

• Teso, Karamoja, Sebei, West Nile, Acholi, Kigezi & Lango
• This initiative was able to give assurance to farmers (especially the youth) about the market for their produce.
• Built more loyalty with our contracted farmers.
• The contracts are always done to various value chains such as;
• Sorghum
• Maize
• Barley
• Coffee
• Soybean
• Honey
• Poultry

3. ATA has trained over 125,000 people especially youth and women in Farming as a Business (FaaB). Some of the aspects of these training include,

• Agribusiness Enterprise Selection
• Considerations in Farming as a Business
• Agronomic principles and practices
• Post-Harvest Handling Practices
• Global Good Agricultural Practices (GAP)
• Agricultural Marketing
• Farmer Institutional Development and High Level Farmer Organization

4. ATA has trained over 125,000 people especially youth and women in the Business Development Services (ADS) including financial management, agribusiness planning, enterprise selection, agricultural marketing, group dynamics, buying and selling, costing, gender issues in business, life skills, climate change mitigation and adaptation, skills development, value addition, among others
5. ATA is proud to have been among the companies in introducing white sorghum to many farming communities in Teso, Sebei, West Nile, Lango, Achoili and recently to Karamoja. These initially used to engaged in red sorghum (less preferred by the brewery companies)
6. Producer Organizations (RPO’s) and Farmer-Agent Model (FAM) Models. ATA is also appreciated for having introduced two good models named; Rural Producer Organizations (RPO’s) and Farmer-Agent Model (FAM) among many farming communities in Northern and Eastern Uganda. Under RPO’s, various farmers groups in various communities are supported to engaged in a production of at least one enterprise which ATA the off taker is interested in such as sorghum. With the Farmer-Agent Model, for every farmer group, ATA identifies an agent (under a certain criteria), who is further skilled and then acts as a link between ATA and the farmers. This then earns on a contract basis.

1. Agro-Tourism Association  has been involved in development of recent concluded National Strategy for Youth Employment in Agricultural (NSYEA) under the Ministry Of Agriculture, Animal Industry And Fisheries (MAAIF) supported by Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) of the United Nations., Agro-Tourism Association’s  pertinent role in this process was  both in the regional  consultative workshops, development of the draft and final drafts and mobilizing of the youth to participate in the youth champions in agriculture which was unveiled at the launch of the strategy by the minister of finance and economic planning and minister of Agriculture, Animal Industry And Fisheries.

1. The organization also took part in the recently concluded Youth Champions in Agriculture. 25 youth,  5 (youth and women) from each region of the country were selected mobilizing of the youth to participate in the youth champions in agriculture which was unveiled at the launch of the strategy by the minister of finance and economic planning and minister of Agriculture, Animal Industry and Fisheries. The top 5 youth were supported with financial and material support to boost their agribusinesses.

9. Agro-Tourism Association has successfully enabled hundreds of farmer groups attain profitable and sustainable markets (local, regional and international markets) for their produce. Some of the products are either in raw or processed forms such as piggery, poultry/eggs, cereals, honey, milk, crafts, leather,  among others

10. Through the Apprenticeship and Internship programs, Agro-Tourism Association has successfully benefited over 800 youth both from formal and informational institutions.

11. Through the Incubation, Agro-Tourism Association has nurtured 23 businesses whose products are favorably competing in the market today
12. The organization is also proud to have eminently contributed to the development of other national important documents such as;

• UGANDA’S FOREST INVESTMENT PROGRAM under the Ministry of Water and Environment. Our contribution was made through one of our collaborators Environmental Alert
• ZARDI Research and Development Programmes for “contributing to transforming household livelihoods and social-economic development towards middle income status” (for National Agriculture Research Organization).
• Agriculture Sector Strategic Plan 2015/16-2019/20 for the Ministry of Agriculture, Animal Industry and Fisheries, Government of Uganda.
• National Agricultural Policy (NPA 2013) under the Ministry Of Agriculture, Animal Industry And Fisheries, Government of Uganda

13. Agro-Tourism Association has successfully enabled hundreds of farmer groups attain profitable and sustainable markets (local, regional and international markets) for their produce. Some of the products are either in raw or processed forms such as piggery, poultry/eggs, cereals, honey, milk, crafts, leather, among others

14. Eastern Africa Sub-Regional Consultation on Coherence on Food and Nutrition Global Policy in the International Year of Family Farming (IYFF) 2014. The conference which was held at Hotel African had representatives from Australia, Kenya, Ethiopia, Somalia, DRC, Seychelles, Madagascar, Tanzania, Uganda, Canada, California, South Sudan, Burundi, and Rwanda among others. On this conference, the association’s C.E.O presented a paper entitles; Agriculture and Tourism, Partners in Agribusiness Development.

15. Agro-Tourism Association has established relationships and partnerships with various entities in the fields of research, trainings, academia (Universities like Makerere, Busitema, Princeton – USA) among others. Other partners incluide; SASAKAWA Global 2000, Sasakawa Africa Association, Food and Agricultural Organization (FAO) Uganda Country Office, Ministry of Agriculture, Animal Industries and Fisheries (MAAIF), Del-Agro Business Enterprises Ltd, International Year of Family Farming (IYFF +10), AgriProfocus, Youth in Agribusiness Africa (YAN), African Agricultural Advisory Services (AFAAS),Pan African Agribusiness & Agro-Industry Consortium (PanAAC), Uganda were from Support for Women in Agriculture and Environment (SWAGEN), Participatory Ecological Land Use Management (PELUM), Eastern and Southern Africa Small Scale Farmers Forum (ESAFFU), Virtual Livelihood School Africa (VLSA), Food Rights Alliance (FRA), Volunteer Efforts for Development Concerns (VEDCO), Africa Union of Conservationists (AUC), Consumer Education Trust (CONSENT), Uganda National Farmers Federation (UNFFE), National Organic Agricultural Movement of Uganda (NOGAMU), Uganda Fisheries and Fish Conservation Association (UFFCA), Uganda National Apiculture Development Organization (TUNADO) etc.  It’s an active member of various local and International networks.

16. The company has established an Agribusiness demonstration farm on a 50 acres to provide practical agribusiness and entrerpreneurship training services. The training centre has crop (horticultural, fruit trees, spices and field) demonstrations, Livestock/pasture demonstrations, 200 seater capacity conference facility, gardens, farm canteen with DSTV and Wifi, accomodation (spaciuos cottages and hostels), among others; which all aim at providing condusive training environments for the trainees.

17. Agro-Tourism Association has managed to take over 45 farmer groups majorly youth and women groups and various groups from Uganda, South Sudan, Europe, Asia, Zambia, Kenya among others to agricultural enterprises (pictured below is one of the most recent tour in western Uganda which composed of majorly youth farmers from Northern Uganda, eastern Uganda, west Nile and Karamoja regions).

18. The organization and some of their technical staffs have published various books and magazines such as entitled Farming as a Business (FaaB) and Onion production manual. Other books, Agro-Tourism development in Uganda, green house farming, piggery management, tamato production manual, are underway

19. Agro-Tourism Association of East Africa in partnership with Del-Agro Business Enterprises Ltd organized a successful agribusiness trade fair which was held at Farm Gate Mukono. The function which lasted for 5 full days attracted over 100 exhibitors and over 1000’s of participants. Among the exhibitors were Afribanana products, CURAD and among the key people who turned up were ministers from both Mengo government and the government of the Republic of Uganda as Minister for health and water and environment respectively.