Stories From:::...Katugo Marketing Group

Products Exhibited at Graduation Ceremony

2009-01-21T18:06:00.011+03:00

After introducing the production of doughnuts to the Katugo Marketing Group in Nakasongola, We have had an opportunity to exhibit our products. The three teams operating in different parts of Nakasongola district joined efforts with support from JOBS-ICT, Makerere University's Department of Food Science and Technology, and the Faculty of Computing and Information Technology to exhibit the products made by the three farmer groups in Nakasongola.

The exhibition is still on until the end of the week, providing snacks that boost the graduates’ energy as they celebrate their success with their friends.

Katugo group is exhibiting the Ugrain Bar, Irima with Cassava Cookies and Kewerimide providing the best peanut butter.

This is a success story for the groups as much as it's for the graduates to enjoy the best of Nakasongola Produce. Revenue generated will be sent to the respective groups so that they can be reinvested to grow their businesses.

After a while.... We had to retreat

2008-09-16T21:15:00.006+03:00

After two weeks, Abbas and Ezekiel had a chance to travel to Katugo to make a follow up of the production done by the farmers and address some of the issues that had been raised by the customers. This trip was intended to ensure good quality of the product as the market grows.

I am glad to report to you that the local market is growing steadily and each group member is supposed to do marketing of the product wherever they go. Over 300 bars have so far been sold, in Katugo trading center where the business is situated. Marketing in Luweero and Nakasongola town has not yet been done massively, however it’s due to start soon.

We carried some products to Kampala and tried marketing them in the supermarkets around. We have registered some success with some supermarket operators in Wandegeya and a few setbacks with some. The products are doing extremely well at CIT canteen; where we have been able to supply them twice.

Sales are expected to increase with the opening up of the 3^rd term of study for primary, and secondary schools.

After establishing a good market base in Kampala and maintaining the quality of the product, farmers will be sending the products on a weekly basis for distributions to the identified markets, after which the proceeds will be sent back.

Besides Ugrain Bars, our partners are planning to start selling roasted peanuts (ground nuts) in order to gain some extra income which can be used to cater for rent and other costs. They have also bought some ironing boxes that they are using to seal the products using the subscription fee that each group member paid.

It was a colorful day for the two members of Katugo Group, reuniting with their friends back in Nakasongola, and being a Sunday, we met only a few leaders since other members had to attend church.

Katugo Project Implementation Updates

2008-09-02T21:50:00.007+03:00

On Thursday the 21st of August, two members from Katugo Group left for Nakasongola to implement the production of grain based bars by the Katugo Marketing Group. After a week of their stay with the farmers, I had chance to travel to Nakasongola and interact with them. They have encountered a number of challenges ranging from the absence of raw materials in the local area, absence of power as they have resorted to renting a generator to be used for sealing and have also got doubts about the sustainability of the business. They had to go an extra mile to convince the farmers that the business was to be owned by them (farmers) after the team’s departure

I also learnt that the they were visited by Lorine, Save the Children’s Food Security Manager who urged them to come up with a memorandum of understanding between the team and the farmer’s Katugo Marketing Group, gave suggestions about buying a generator for the group, and recording all the equipment that will be passed on to the farmers. Different leadership roles have been given to group members and a committee that will be running the business has been elected. Here we have personnel in charge of production, marketing, among others.
However, they have been blessed with an average turn up of 25 group members a day, though production has to take place in the midmornings and afternoons, when farmers have finished working in their gardens.

The team attributes its success to Adeline who has played a big role in mobilizing the farmers and Jotham who went ahead to secure a bicycle for our team members. These two extension workers from Save the Children have been of great importance to our team. While interacting with the farmers, I discovered that they wanted to take on more products such as baking bread, cookies in addition to bars...

The next time you get to a supermarket, dont forget to buy a Ugrain Bar for your self as we intend to distribute some bars to these places.

Katugo Team members

2008-08-02T11:26:00.009+03:00

Katugo group has got four members; two from ICT and the rest from FST.

Below is a group photo.

We are blessed with only one lady Racheal from ICT, who is in charge of marketing our products in and outside campus, two gentlemen from Food Science thats Alhajji on the and Abbas on the righ who are our technical adbvisers in charge of production and quality control all under the leadership of Ezekiel the team positioned on the right hand side of Racheal. Its a happy family!

Proceedings from the National Jinja Agricultural Fair

2008-07-31T08:43:00.012+03:00

Last week on Friday, one of the members from Katugo Marketing Group got a chance to attend the agricultural fair in Jinja. It was fun as he got nearly all the information he needed.

He visited several stalls and managed to have a look at some of the products which were of great importance to our project as they gave us ideas of how agricultural products can be added value to.

There was a stall for agriculture under the Department of Food Science and Technology, which had products made out of the orange fleshed sweet potatoes. These included: cookies, biscuits, chapattis, juice and “daddies” among others.
Under the Department of Agricultural Engineering, the stall visited had a cassava/ potato grater which is a machine used to grate cassava/ potatoes into smaller pieces for faster drying.

The other machine was the grain grinder which is basically used to grind grains or cereals.

Inside the National Agricultural Research Organization (NARO) stall there were solar driers, both simple and hybrid. The hybrid drier is a modified simple drier with an oven that provides heat when there is no solar energy, probably at night and during rainy seasons. These driers are used for drying different products like pineapples, mangoes and bananas among others.

Brochures containing information about solar driers were obtained with contacts of the people behind the technology so that more knowledge can be obtained about how to make those driers, maintain them and use them productively.There was a maize thresher too.

Under the food security department, there were varieties of grains which included sesame, sorghum and groundnuts to mention but a few.

There was a stall for National Organic Agriculture Movement of Uganda (NOGAMU). There were dried fruits (mangos and pineapples), an appetizer made from mixed spices which were not disclosed, pineapple juice and tomato sauce.

There was another stall for the Isingiro District Farmers Association which had banana cakes though they could not explain the manufacturing process.

There was one major challenge that was noticed and this was a problem with packaging. Most of the products already had moisture in them with reduces their shelf life.

There were many other stalls, but these were not visited due to the heavy down pour of rain which restricted movement from one place to another and this colleague had to travel back to Kampala.

Fruits from Our Very First Field Visit to Katugo:

2008-07-25T08:10:00.011+03:00

At the beginning of this week we had a chance to travel to Katugo for the second time, to hold focused group discussions with our partners - Katugo Marketing Group.
This time, we traveled by Taxi from Kampala to Katugo, a 2 hours drive with our bags ready to spend a night there. On reaching the bus stop at Katugo, we were welcomed by Jotham, Adeline’s assistant who offered to walk us around Katugo Trading centre while locating a place for us to lodge.

After locating a lodge, we had a discussion with Jotham, who gave us a brief background of Katugo Marketing Group, its composition and some of their challenges.

We had lunch and there after, rode on boda bodas to Kiraramba to meet our partners. On reaching the village we took a walk around Kiraramba trading centre before settling at a nearby primary school to conduct our meeting.

With a turn up of 12 people composed of 10 women and 2 men, the meeting began with a word of prayer from the LC1 chairman, and also an opportunity for everyone to introduce them selves. We began the discussion by identifying the produce (crops) that was on season. Voluntarily, every member mentioned what they had in their gardens and stores. These include; Cassava, Sweet potatoes (Orange flesh), Bananas, Ground nuts, sesame, sorghum, and Maize.
Fruits listed include: Mangoes though out of season, pineapples which are yet to start ripening and some jackfruit which is mainly for home consumption though also out of season. They also told us about the existence of small vegetable gardens.

We went ahead to inquire from them what they have so far done with the produce, and some possible products that could be developed from these products. The discussion was flawed by some silence as they hesitated to give us there ideas, but thanks to Kewerimide Group who advised us to carry some samples for them to taste. After giving them some ground nut bars, sesame bars and Daddies to taste, this was a genesis of brilliant product descriptions from these people.

We had to put our list aside and listen to their suggestions. Among these was frying of grated Orange Flesh Sweet potatoes, making of doughnuts from mixture of potato flour, soy bean flour and some curry powder, and making of Bagiya from sweet potatoes besides drying the pineapples and possibility of making pancakes and daddies.

After getting their views, we didn’t rush into deciding what to work upon. We will have to make samples of these products before making a choice. We want to avoid declining ideas that could be developed into amazing products.

We were blessed with a down pour of rain and this warned us to be fast on planning since the rainy season is beginning soon, a period which these people have to attend to their gardens.

Sean took a photo of the whole group and later on we headed to Nakasongola town. Riding at the back of Save the children vehicle, some of us had fan admiring the vegetation cover along the road.

We arrived at Save offices at around 7pm, kept our bags with Sean before we could take a walk around Nakasongola town and later on had dinner while discussing the local politics, the war in Iraq and US elections.

At around 8:30 pm, we had to think of getting back to Katugo where we had secured a place to lodge. We waited for taxis to drop us there but all in vain. At 9:30 pm, we had to look for a truck to drop us at Katugo and with no options, everyone have to sit at the back, sharing the compartment with some poles being transported. The truck stopped at two different locations before getting to Katugo, but on these two counts, we were scared since we didn’t know what would happen next. At last we arrived at Katugo, and headed straight to our place of residence and retired to bed at around 11pm.

The next morning we decided to look for milk so as to prepare our own tea but all in vain since there were no people willing to sell some milk to us. After having breakfast, which was a cup of black tea accompanied by fried cassava, chapattis and buns, we had to get back to Kiraramba, this time to visit our friends in their respective homes. We headed straight to the chairman’s home, whom we found milking his cows. We had to wait for him to finish his morning business as we observed the surrounding. As it’s a culture in Buganda for a visitor to have a meal before leaving the compound, we had to enjoy another round of breakfast with the chairman. A cup of milk for everyone was prepared before we could tour his garden.

We were intercepted by rain as we planned to meet the next farmer, so we had to wait for the rain to stop. During this period, we sought guidance on where to establish our production unit and how to obtain some building materials.
The rain reduced and we went ahead to visit some two farmers. We had to call the boda boda guys to ferry us back to Katugo before another downpour which could flood the road.

We enjoyed some matooke, rice and posho as it rained and thereafter boarded for Kampala. The ride to Kampala was exhausting though fun as one of our members had a tight conversation with another passenger aboard the taxi. This tried to shorten the distance as we burst out into laughter because of the way these two guys handled each other.

After a glamorous trip, we will be making prototypes of these products from which we will have to choose two or three. Hey don’t for get to leave your email address behind after commenting on our blog.

An Experience: From the Games!

2008-07-14T10:18:00.004+03:00

Makerere University is hosting the 5th All Africa University Games and a series of sports activities are being conducted both in and out side the main campus.
Students are competing in a number of games among which include; tennis, football, rugby, swimming , badminton, squash, athletics, volleyball, martial arts, table tennis, basket ball, and wood ball.

Some of us are cheering our friends, sharing their victory when one wins a medal….
However, during this remarkable sports season, there has been an exhibition running for the whole of last week.
Here, faculties, schools, universities and some organizations have been exhibiting there innovations.

This has been a great source of knowledge for us; I have had a chance to see with my own eyes, what our friends from the food science section were talking about. For the very first time in my life, I tasted cakes, cookies, biscuits and chapatti all made from the orange flesh sweet potato. These were being exhibited by a group of students from the Faculty of Agriculture.
I was curious to know the whole production process of these products, so I went ahead to ask some of questions. Good enough, these people gave answers to all questions I posed. They went ahead to tell me the unit cost of production for these products.

Having seen and tasted some of the products, I moved onto the section of technology. Here, various machines were being exhibited by students from the Faculty of Technology. But, I was interested in only one and that’s the “Cassava Greater”. This machine is used to cut cassava into smaller chips for faster drying.

However, other root tubers like, sweet potatoes, yams among others can also be chipped by this machine. Its manual, operating the way sewing machine does.

This experience made me gain confidence in what we intend to work upon. And by the end of the day, I had gathered more ideas for our project than I had before.

High Protein Energy Bars:

2008-07-11T09:47:00.009+03:00

Last week, I gave you an overview of what we intend to work upon while in Nakasongola. The grain based high protein energy bar was among the product we had settled for. Its ingredients include: Sorghum (as the major component), simsim, groundnuts, and sugar (binding agent).

Below are photos of Abbas carrying out production trials of the bars in the nutritional lab, Department of Food Science and Technology, Makerere University.

An overview of what we intend to work upon!

2008-07-10T13:11:00.010+03:00

Afew weeks ago we had a trip to Nakasongola and during this particular visit, we had a chance to talk to farmers in Kiralamba, Katugo parish, Kakooge Sub-County. They are part of the Katugo marketing Group with which we will be working.

During this trip, we were briefed by one of the farmers who also offered us a visit to one of their gardens. He talked about their successes, weaknesses, challenges and some of their plans.

By luck, I am one of the students who will be working with this group. We have come up with a list of products we would like to make with our partners, the Katugo Marketing Group. We have decided to call ourselves the Katugo Group Such that we have something in common.
From previous meetings held with my group members, we have compiled a shopping list below:

We intend to bake some bread, cakes, and cookies which will be made from the Orange Sweet Potato grown by the local farmers.

Dried fruits. The fruits include jackfruit, mangoes and pineapples, depending on their availability.
We have also considered the drying of vegetables since these farmers own small vegetable gardens.
Energy bars have not been left behind. These bars have sorghum as their main ingredient then some variations in percentage of ground nuts and simsim.

Juice production is also expected on condition that there is a nearby water source to the KFC’s (Key Farmer Coordinator) home from where we are supposed to operate.

Frying is being considered, Abbas and El hajji are working on that. They are also doing more study on how to make use of the Orange Sweet Potatoes which are grown by almost all the farmers in the Parish.

Today, we are taking a look at some of the equipment we intend to use such as: a biomass oven for bread production, fruit/vegetable drier, among others. We want to calculate the cost of putting them in place. We have also made a budget for a two days trip to Katugo. I hope by the end of today, it will be ready for submission.

Incase our budget has been approved, we will be travelling to Katugo next week. And by the end of next week, we will have a complete list of what we will be producing. We will be collecting the views of the farmers on our suggestions during our two days stay in Katugo.

This time, It's students...

2008-07-08T21:25:00.005+03:00

Racheal, Ezekiel, Abbas and Al Hajji have this opportunity to share with you the progress of their on going project.
From being total strangers to friends, we have an opportunity to transform theoretical knowledge gained in lecture theatres into practicals, changing lives of the people in the rural areas of Nakasongola. We intend to add value to the crops grown by processing them into finished goods, package and market them.

We are working on our business plan which will be presented to the funding organization to avail us with funds. Our operations are to be based in Katugo Parish, Kakooge Sub-county, Nakasongola district. We will be partnering with Katugo Marketing Group.

Currently, we are busy making a work plan, identifying possible products and technologies, product designs, packaging material, gathering market information, a business proposal and a budget.