The Building Resilience and Inclusive Growth of Highland farming systems for rural Transformation (BRIGHT) project’s integrated approach to inclusive agricultural advancement was featured at Uganda’s 31st National Agricultural Show, delivering clear impact in a number of areas.
Organized by the Uganda National Farmers Federation (UNFFE) in collaboration with the Ministry of Agriculture, Animal Industry and Fisheries (MAAIF), the Agricultural Show, held June 27 to July 5 with the theme “Technological Innovations Driving Farm Wealth,” attracted over 120,000 participants, including farmers, agribusiness entrepreneurs, students, and more.
Notable institutions, such as the National Agricultural Research Organization (NARO), Bank of Uganda, Syova Seed Uganda Limited, and the World Food Programme (WFP), were represented as well.
“Together with our partners, we focused on sharing agricultural knowledge and practices, fostering networks with like-minded institutions…”
Grace Babirye, BRIGHT Deputy Team Lead
The BRIGHT project, funded by the Embassy of the Kingdom of the Netherlands and implemented by IFDC in partnership with Agriterra, participated in the event, showcasing sensible solutions and farmer success stories.
Throughout the exhibition, BRIGHT’s partners – including Psalms Food Industries Limited, Kilimo Kisasa Limited, AUXFIN Uganda, Mengya Integrated Farmers Cooperative Society, and Karangura Peak Modern Coffee Farmers’ Cooperative Society Limited (KAPCCO) – interacted with hundreds of attendees to share practical insights, build new networks, and enhance interest in their innovations.
BRIGHT Deputy Team Lead Grace Babirye described the project’s goals, stating, “Together with our partners, we focused on sharing agricultural knowledge and practices, fostering networks with like-minded institutions, highlighting the BRIGHT project’s innovations, and engaging stakeholders to identify new climate-smart agricultural opportunities.”
The project and its partners focused on four main topics: value addition, market access, financial inclusion, and food and nutrition security.
KAPCCO and Psalms Food Industries showcased affordable technologies for coffee processing and processing potatoes into chips. These efforts reflect the extent to which highland farmers in the Rwenzori, Mount Elgon, and Kigezi regions of Uganda are breaking into new markets and increasing incomes through strategic value addition.
Mengya Integrated Farmers Cooperative Society demonstrated that potato seed production, farmer-led aggregation, and formal partnerships with buyers such as Psalms Food Industries are boosting competitiveness within Uganda’s agricultural economy. Visitors saw firsthand that organized cooperatives secure more reliable markets and build stronger business systems than farmers working alone.
AUXFIN Uganda promoted financial inclusion, illustrating village savings and loan association (VSLA) digitization efforts across the Rwenzori, Mount Elgon, and Kigezi regions. These digital tools have improved transparency, fostered a savings culture, and increased timely, affordable access to collateral free, data-driven credit for smallholder farmers.
AUXFIN Uganda Director Zinat Juma explained, “We demonstrated how AUXFIN’s digital tools, including AgriCoach and VSLAs, are contributing to farmer empowerment, resilience, and rural development under the BRIGHT project. We engaged with partners from the public and private sectors, and these conversations are paving the way for potential collaborations, especially in scaling digital savings groups, expanding our youth [skill-building] platforms, and integrating climate-smart content into our framework.”
In addition to these business-oriented topics, participants also engaged with hands-on kitchen garden models, cooking demonstrations, and conversations with experts to learn more about dietary diversity and food security. Visitors discovered how the BRIGHT project’s integrated approach is reducing malnutrition and fostering healthier diets and more resilient communities.
The BRIGHT project participated in this joint exhibition under initiatives supported by the Embassy of the Kingdom of the Netherlands. The project’s active involvement at the Agricultural Show reflected the value of public-private partnerships and farmer-led innovation to move Uganda’s highlands toward a more resilient and inclusive agricultural future.
The Building Resilience and Inclusive Growth for Highland Farming Systems for Rural Transformation (BRIGHT) project, funded by the Netherlands Ministry of Foreign Affairs through the Embassy of the Kingdom of the Netherlands, seeks to build the resilience capacity of farm households and farming systems in Uganda to increase income and food and nutrition security of all farmers and transform households from subsistence to more market-oriented in Kigezi, Mount Elgon, and Rwenzori regions. The project is being implemented by the International Fertilizer Development Center (IFDC) in cooperation with Agriterra, the Uganda Ministry of Agriculture, Animal Industry and Fisheries (MAAIF), the National Agricultural Research Organization (NARO), district local governments, and private sector partners.
