Newsletter issue 33 - Nogamu

GOALS AND VALUES
Before undertaking new farm enterprises or making
major changes to an existing business, set some well
defined farm goals. Those goals should go beyond
profit objectives to include available resources as
well as personal and family values.
“When asking for assistance with farm planning,
people always ask ‘what should I grow? What
market should I target?’
“They should take a step back and ask: why do we
want to buy a farm? Why do we want to grow this
crop?’”
NOGAMU will work with farm families to develop a
mission statement and goals based on their core
values as part of a whole-farm planning process.
“Financial returns generally are not at the top
of reasons why of life available on a farm,
independence, environment stewardship and
spending time with the family often lead people
back to the land.
Standards compliance...
from page 13
the resultant failure in market entry of mostly
developing world imports into the developed
countries markets.
Technical Capacity to meet standards
remains very weak in many developing
countries. This could perhaps be attributed
to the limited infrastructure and low literacy
levels of the majority of the agro based
sector.
Other major barriers have little to do with
technical capacity but rather unequal access
to certification bodies this is especially
so for the local market producers and the
exporters. Most certification bodies are
not interested in developing schemes and
procedures to ensure standards compliance
for the local markets in Uganda.
Organic Food producers and distributors
are increasingly facing issues related to
standards. The majority are “imposed” on
them by clients; others are “imposed” on
them by their governments. Some are even
conditions for sale and are therefore part of
the contract. Some will have to be directly
applied for from the government, some
have to be bought at international certifying
bodies. However despite all these formal
differences, the practices they demand and
the standards requirements are strikingly
similar. Generally the upcoming trend is
characterized by a move from standards that
emphasize product quality to standards that
emphasize production process procedures
and management. As a result, quality
Assurance schemes like HACCP or ISO 9000
have increasingly been made mandatory for
food and distribution chains globally.
Lastly an increasingly thin line of distinction
is being drawn between the “private” and
the “public” spheres whereby once the
government has claimed all responsibility
for all standards and food safety regulations
in its territory, currently the dynamics are
changing with standards being sought and
enforced by a multi stakeholder interplay
Nogamu at Ten Years
17