Farmers in Hoima are preparing to supply food to the camps created as a result of on-going oil exploration activities in the region. The farmers, under their group, Mairirwe Farmers’ Cooperation, have planted rice, maize, beans, sweet potatoes and cabbages, readying their produce for the first supply deal to Tullow Oil Uganda Ltd in June this year.
The participation of local communities and a country’s citizens generally is regarded as crucial in the development of the oil industry worldwide.
Hoima is one of the districts in Uganda’s Albertine Rift, where commercially viable oil and gas reserves were first discovered in 2006. Tullow Oil Uganda Ltd is one of the companies exploring for oil in the region.
David Byaruhanga, a farmer and the group’s Community-based Facilitator, says the farmers are happy with the arrangement, which they negotiated under their umbrella group, Hoima District Farmers Association (HODIFA). He thinks they will be able to suitably meet the demand.
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He says several farmers’ groups in the district have been approached, and each of them will supply one-and-a-half tons of rice each week, on a rotational basis.
HODIFA is comprised of over 5000 members. According to Charles Kasangaki, their Coordinator, the supply deal will cover only 30 percent of Tullow’s total food requirements for the start.
Byaruhanga’s group, formed in 2005, is made up of 400 members. The market for their rice has previously been in Hoima town, Kampala, Rwanda and South Sudan. When in season, a bag of rice would be sold off for about 150,000 Uganda Shillings. According to Byaruhanga, the deal with Tullow Oil has not only eliminated middle-men, but it has also given them a better price, at 180,000 Uganda Shillings for a bag of rice.
When Uganda Radio Network visited one of the farmers’ group fields, the beans were at flowering stage, while some of the rice grains were beginning to turn yellowish-brown, a sign that it is almost ready for harvest. Byaruhanga says that this rice, which is on seven acres, will be ready for harvest within a fortnight. The farmers have a store at Mairirwe Trading Centre where they will keep the produce.
Cathy Adengo, the Corporate and Communications Manager for Tullow Oil, says the arrangement with the farmers is also meant to support them with training to make it sustainable.
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She adds however that the program will only be sustainable if the farmers can maintain the quality of the food required by Tullow. When asked what kind of standards would be required, she said that for instance, they would need rice which is free of stones.
According to Byaruhanga, these standards are achievable. For instance, his group owns a de-stoning machine, which removes stones as well as broken grains, to produce wholesome rice.
This arrangement is one step forward in having communities in the oil region participate or benefit from the emerging industry.
In the neighboring district of Bullisa though, such arrangements are not moving as fast. Fred Lukumu, the District Chairman, says that the farmers are however being encouraged to improve on the quality and quantity of their animal stocks since the area still has grazing land.
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Uganda’s National Oil and Gas Policy recognizes national participation as important. Jackson Byaruhanga, an economist and the co-author of the National Participation in the Oil and Gas Industry 2011 study, says that the number of Ugandans taking part in the developing oil industry is still at a low scale.
The study recommends an evaluation and policy framework specific to local content in the oil and gas industry, looking into products and processes through which the nationals can benefit. Currently, there is an on-going study commissioned by the Petroleum Exploration and Production Department of the Ministry of Energy and Mineral Development, to evaluate demand and local supply capacity in the industry.
