Engaging Uganda's National Agricultural Research Organisation to bolster UBL's Local Raw Materials program.

Uganda Breweries Limited (UBL) today signed a Memorandum of Understanding with the National Agricultural Research Organisation to promote research collaboration to advance agricultural productivity under UBL’s Local Raw Materials (LRM) program. 

Part of this engagement will seek to support scientists, post-doctorate students etc to jointly plan and execute research projects and pieces of training through UBL’s scholarship program (Skills for Life).

We will exchange information, technology and best practices that increase agricultural production and productivity. We will also publish well-researched data and manuals which will be used to skill UBL farmers in best agronomic practices and jointly develop effective sorghum, barley and cassava seed production and distribution systems.  

The size of Uganda’s youth population continues to grow, while the formal sector shrinks, thus necessitating the need to engage these young people productively. We want them to know that there is a future in the informal sector, and particularly in agriculture.

In light of the above, UBL is creating opportunities by boosting local production capacity, import-substitution, the promotion of local content and job creation and we are pleased to report that we are currently making 96% of our brands locally - against a target of 100%.

With these great strides, we have set a target to grow our production capacity by 50% by the end of 2021 - making it vital for us to engage more youth in the agriculture value chain. And with the sector being the bedrock of Uganda’s economy, we must be adding value to and over-indexing it.

This partnership with NARO, therefore, seeks to do just that while delivering the fundamental objectives of the LRM program – to work thoughtfully to enhance people’s lives for the long term while making our supply chains more resilient and create a healthy economic loop.

I for one am excited about this opportunity and appreciate the teams that continue to work tirelessly to see this partnership bear fruit.