ABSTRACT
This Community Action Research platform intervened in the rice value chain using a two-pronged approach: production-supply and organizational-market side interventions. The project promoted Good Agronomic Practices using improved rice varieties and post-harvest handling technologies through on-farm demonstrations and learning plots to improve the productivity of rice in northern Uganda. The second approach focused on agribusiness rice clusters and market linkages and sought to create vibrant producer organizations and market linkages for rice output and inputs in the value chain. Improved production and market access for smallholder rice farmers are being achieved through cluster formation. The approach incorporated TVET colleges through community outreach, joint special projects, business plans and entrepreneurship deepening. Students were encouraged to innovate and have established a diversified product portfolio for human consumption (parboiled rice), livestock feeds (fermented rice straw) and energy (husk charcoal briquettes). Producer groups were able to diversify into the production of quality declared seeds (QDS) creating local seed businesses, and this triggered the Uganda government into funding bulking stores and machinery. This rice CARP has increased the visibility of Gulu University, bridged the higher education value chain, strengthened the entrepreneurial and internship infrastructure at the university, strengthened University-Community engagement and improved university processes for timely postgraduate study completion.
