Background and Objectives:
ESAFF Uganda initiated the Agroecology Business Hub to support small-scale farmers in addressing these challenges and fostering innovation, thus improving small-scale farmers' livelihoods while ensuring food security. The Agroecology Business Hub seeks to revolutionize agriculture by promoting creativity, teamwork, and sustainable methods and empowering small-scale farmers to venture into sustainable agriculture and run profitable enterprises. In the context of climate change, establishing a regenerative and harmonious interaction between agriculture and the environment by fostering biodiversity, soil health, and resource efficiency is crucial for our engagements with small-scale farmers. Our goal is to serve as a spark for the growth of an agroecological community that brings together farmers, scientists, business people, and decision-makers to jointly develop sustainable solutions that support social justice, ecological resilience, and economic viability.
ESAFF Uganda understands the importance of agroecological businesses for transforming food systems. ESAFF Uganda launched the Agroecology Business Hub to support small-scale farmers, especially women, to improve their livelihoods through skilling and empowerment to enable them to overcome economic challenges in terms of enterprise selection, market access, financial resources, knowledge, capital, and gender inequality, among others.
Through the Agroecology Business Hub, ESAFF Uganda works towards:
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Building a case for the need for sustainable investments and supportive framework conditions for agroecological enterprises through skilling small-scale farmers, empowering small-scale farmers to overcome challenges in production, and gathering proof that agroecology can be profitable.
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Ensuring livelihoods are resilient and profitable by empowering small-scale farmers, especially women and youth, to improve productivity and profitability
Pillars of the Agroecology Business Hub:
The Agroecology Business Hub is designed to support all the business ideas and practices that small-scale farmers engage in to improve their livelihoods by ensuring sustainable investments and supporting the establishment of profitable small-scale farmer-led enterprises.
The Agroecology Business Hub nurtures and supports innovative agroecological solutions through research, development, and incubation programs, provides comprehensive training programs and educational resources to empower farmers with the knowledge and skills needed for the successful operation of agroecological enterprises, facilitates market access for agroecological products, connecting farmers with conscious consumers and sustainable supply chains, advocates for policies that incentivize and support agroecological practices at local, regional, and national levels, then fosters a vibrant and collaborative community by organizing events, workshops, and networking opportunities for stakeholders in the agroecology sector.
The Agroecology Business Hub has three pillars:
Business Capacity Development:
The Agroecology Business Hub uses different business models, which is are well-proven for building small-scale farmers’ capacity to engage in farming as a business.
Access to Affordable Credit:
The Agroecology Business Hub supports small-scale farmers especially women to access affordable credit to be able to invest in business.
Access to Favourable Markets:
The Agroecology Business Hub is addressing the exploitative markets that are keeping small-scale farmers especially women in poverty.
How the Agroecology Business Hub works:
The Agroecology Business Hub maps enterprises, or they apply with the details of their line of work and the kind of support they require; a business assessment is conducted to determine whether the interested businesses meet the requirements and the exact kind of support needed, the terms and conditions are developed and agreed to by both parties and a Memorandum of Understanding is signed, a business support plan is then developed, and both the enterprises and the Agroecology Business Hub implement the agreed Business Support Plan, the Agroecology Business Hub sets key performance indicators. Finally, once the supported enterprises realize profits, their successes are celebrated and implemented measures towards their success is disseminated to the wider community.
By March 2024, the Agroecology Business Hub (ABH) had accessed over 54 businesses and currently supporting 12 small-scale farmer-led businesses in different regions of Uganda.
Watch a video about Agroecology Business Hub:
For more information:
Write to us: businesshub@esaffuganda.org