Uganda has received a major boost in cotton production with two major international agencies proving funding for coffee growing in northern Uganda.
Acumen Fund, a social investment fund and Root Capital, a global venture firm announced today that they are investing US$2.2m (about 5 billion Uganda shillings) in cotton ginning for farmers in northern Uganda which is recovering from more than 20 years of war.
farmers picking cotton in Gulu northern Uganda
According to a press statement from the two organizations, the funding will help Gulu Agricultural Development Company (GADC), to buy seed cotton from small cotton farmers in northern Uganda at a good price and gin in for export.
The statement says that GADC , a private company sources organic and conventionally produced cotton from about 42,500 smallholder farmers in northern Uganda. The funding is in form of a loan.
“GADC has great potential to bring renewed life to northern Uganda’s cotton industry and empower thousands of small landholder farmers with the skills to compete in today’s global market,” said Jacqueline Novogratz, CEO of Acumen Fund in a statement authored together with William Foote, founder and CEO of Root Capital.
He says for Root Capital, this loan builds on a portfolio that includes six other small and growing businesses in Uganda and more than 35 businesses across sub-Saharan Africa. “Root Capital is proud to contribute to the revitalization of Northern Uganda – an area ravaged by the Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA), a brutal rebel group that has waged Africa’s longest-running insurgency,” Foote noted.
Two years ago, farmers in Gulu and Amuru Districts began returning to their farms where they face the challenge of reconstructing their lives as subsistence farmers, requiring a reliable cash crop, such as cotton, who reliable market can enable them to meet basic needs such as school fees, medical bills, and other necessities.