Ben & Jerry’s is supporting Fair Trade vanilla farmer cooperatives in Uganda. I recently had the pleasure of working with several of these cooperatives to improve the lives of their farmers.

Located in East Africa, Uganda has a population of approximately 40 million. According to the World Bank, income per capita is $676 and life expectancy 58 years in Uganda. (In the United States, by contrast, income per capital is estimated at $55,837 and life expectancy 79 years). Living standards in Uganda are low, but climate and soil conditions are favorable for numerous crops.

Uganda’s farmers need increased agricultural knowledge and access to end markets to improve their lives. With small plots (often less than 2 acres), most Ugandan farmers cannot afford an agronomist to teach them improved farming techniques or a salesperson to research markets far from their villages. But by forming cooperatives to pool their resources, farmers collectively can obtain these and other services.

One such institution is Rwenzori Farmers Cooperative Union (RFCU), an umbrella cooperative consisting of 2500 farmers organized into 14 primary cooperatives in Western Uganda. Ben & Jerry's is working with the non-profit organization Catholic Relief Services to strengthen RFCU. Funded by Ben & Jerry’s, RFCU agronomists teach farmers techniques to enhance the quantity and quality of their vanilla. Ben & Jerry’s purchases this vanilla under Fair Trade rules, which benefit the farmers by guaranteeing a minimum purchase price and by paying a Fair Trade premium. The premium is an additional payment into a communal fund that farmers use to improve their living conditions.

Under a USAID-funded program with Catholic Relief Services, I spent three weeks in Uganda training RFCU agronomists and leaders of 4 of RFCU’s primary cooperatives in Farming as a Business. Training was highly participatory with numerous games, exercises, and discussions. Topics included entrepreneurial behaviors, communication, marketing, crop profitability analysis, recordkeeping, and business planning. At the end of the training, the 4 primary cooperatives developed plans to strengthen their institutions and to better serve their farmers. During upcoming visits with the primary cooperatives, RFCU agronomists plan to follow up on the training and help implement the improvement plans. They also plan to extend the training to the other 10 primary cooperatives.

The Ben & Jerry’s project in Uganda benefits multiple stakeholders. Farmers benefit by growing more vanilla at higher, more reliable prices, thereby generating additional income needed to improve their families’ lives. Ben & Jerry’s benefits by securing additional supplies of Fair Trade, organic vanilla necessary to meet demand from hungry US consumers. I feel honored to have contributed to this initiative.