Ugandan Farmers Tap Palm Oil And Cutting-Edge Tech To Transform Lives

Much has changed for Nassozi Berna, her husband, and seven children since she began farming palm oil 12 years ago on Kalangala, an island in Uganda’s Lake Victoria. Before that Nassozi and her husband were subsistence farmers growing casaba, banana, and some coffee and living in a small timber-framed house.

Nassozi started growing oil palm trees in 2012. Like many other farmers on Kalangala, she focused on sustainability and avoiding the deforestation and other issues associated with palm oil farming in some parts of the world.

Oil palm trees bear the fruit that makes palm oil – a much more reliable and lucrative crop than the cash crops her family previously grew.

“When we were farming casaba, bananas, and coffee, we were affected by monkeys,” said Nassozi. “They came and destroyed our crops.”

As a result, Nassozi had to find a buyer for the crops that survived the monkey attacks, never knowing in advance how much they would fetch.

“Our living conditions were bad,” said Nassozi who lived in a makeshift house with her family. “In the night when we were sleeping, winds would come and destroy our houses and our children fell sick almost every day.”

Thankfully, things started to turn around when Nassozi began working with the Kalangala Oil Palm Growers Trust (KOPGT) and the family planted their first oil palm trees in 2012. They expanded their crop in 2019 and again in 2022. In Kalangala, many of the people are oil palm farmers.

As part of its mission, KOPGT teaches farmers better agricultural practices. But perhaps most importantly it has created a transparent payment system, so farmers get paid faster – and know if what they’re getting paid is accurate, increasing the standard of living of the farmers and subsequently, much of the island itself.

As the number of farmers and transactions grew, KOPGT needed a digital solution to enable continued growth. Since 2009, SAP has worked to create applications that help smallholder farmers in developing nations, primarily across Africa, enhance food production.

David Balironda, KOPGT’s general manager, explains that the Trust’s system is based on SAP Rural Sourcing Management software, which digitally records information on producers, their farms, and communities at every level of the value chain. This provides visibility and allows parties to communicate with each other easily and quickly.

Underscoring the importance it places on sustainability, KOPGT conducted an initial environmental impact assessment before launching the project and uses dashboards created in SAP Analytics Cloud to monitor the farmers’ plantings and ensure they are in compliance with governmental guidelines.

SAP cloud technology also enables KOPGT to ensure that the oil palm planting meets the most stringent sustainability guidelines set by Uganda’s National Environmental Authority. “We are in the process of applying for that certification by the Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil to make sure that we work within those guidelines,” said Fredrick Sulwe, KOPGT’s finance and administration manager.

As part of KOPGT’s commitment to sustainability, it maintains a lake buffer zone between plantings and the lake, and even rehabilitates areas that have been damaged by other plantings. “Restoration of those areas – the lake buffer zones – is key,” said Sulwe.

In addition to maintaining the buffer zones, the Trust also follows recommendations for the selection of trees and ensures that no chemicals or herbicides are used.

“As we increase household income, we must keep an environment that is free of any distortion by the project,” said Sulwe.

The KOPGT system allows farmers to input information about their crops using the lead farmer’s mobile phone and enables them to receive information and advice back from the Trust. The system also includes a mapping feature that helps farmers know exactly how much land they are farming.

“That means when I go to the bank to get a loan, I’m sure of the size of my lot,” said Nassozi.

In addition, Nassozi also knows exactly how much of the loan is outstanding and when it needs to be repaid.

“Previously, we would almost spend a year without knowing the status of our loan,” she said. “Now we can learn the status of our loans monthly – this never existed before.”

She also credits the system with making her a better and more informed oil palm farmer. “At the end of the month I get a text message, which shows how much I have harvested from my lot,” said Nassozi. Before the system came online she says the family was spending a lot of money on transport going to and from the KOPGT office.

“Palm oil has not only impacted my life, but also the community,” said Nassozi. “There are many farmers who are like me who have built houses, and some have bought cars. They have used the money they got from oil palm to start new businesses on Kalangala, and outside.”

Palm oil is already the most widely used vegetable oil on the planet, with about 71 million tons consumed in 2021. And there is not only a domestic need, but also a demand from the foreign market that Ugandan smallholder farmers like Nassozi’s family and neighbors can help fill.

Nassozi’s confidence and newly found optimism reflect the success of the vegetable oil program on Kalangala island. Because palm fruits can be harvested throughout the year (compared to one or two seasonal harvests of other crops) and have high yields, palm farming has become a viable alternative for the residents.

Tags: palm oil, deforestation, Уганда, oil palm trees, KOPGT