Amoru Amoroto cooperative members to reap big from cassava processing-

SOROTI – Farmers under Amoru Amoroto Multipurpose Cooperative Society Limited in Awaliwal Sub-county, Soroti district, expect to earn better incomes from processing raw cassava following the recent installation of milling machines.

The cooperative which started in 2017 with only 30 members now boasts 278 members who feed its mills with high-quality cassava.

The farmers under the cooperative also grow maize, sorghum, green grams, and groundnuts to supplement cassava growing, which is their main business.

The chairperson of the cooperative, David Odeke, says that the cooperative was established with the prime objective of earning good profits from cassava processing.

Odeke says they pack cassava flour in quantities of 10, 25, and 50 kilogrammes, with each kilo being sold at Shs 3,000. “We sell the processed cassava to bakeries and local consumers but plan to start packing the flour even as low as 2kgs,” he said. He urged farmers to grow more cassava so that the cooperative can be able to continue to run its business smoothly.

Odeke however says washing cassava requires too much water yet it is not available all the time, a challenge he said interferes with the value addition process.

Grace Arionget, a resident of Damasco village, Awalwal Sub-county said earnings from cassava growing have helped her family to meet school fees and medical bills and reinvest some of the money into farming.

“This has helped me to sustain my family and I urge women to join the cooperative [ Amoru Amoroto Multipurpose Cooperative Society Limited ] for there is a lot to benefit from it,” she said. Richard Kedi, another member of the cooperative, is glad that the cooperative is able to supply cassava products to other places like Kampala.

He says the cooperative is helping change their livelihoods, adding that he was able to harvest 20 bags of fresh cassava last season.

The cooperative got machinery for cassava value addition last August through the Matching Grant Facility under the government’s Agriculture Cluster Development Project [ACDP], funded by the World Bank.