Our Projects

At Mara Agribusiness, we are dedicated to fostering sustainable agriculture practices and empowering communities through our innovative initiatives. Our projects are thoughtfully categorized into two distinct branches, each contributing to the growth and sustainability of the agricultural sector.

  1. MARA SUSTAINABILITY PROJECTS

Skills Development Service:

We skill youth advisory agents in coffee agronomy and management, through the youth-to-youth approach. The skilling is hands-on, on-farm, and delivered at the time of immediate need by the farmers. The skilled youth are able to gain sustainable employment in the coffee sector.

Regenerative Production Service:

We transform conventional coffee gardens to regenerative coffee gardens, through the landscape approach. The landscape approach integrates coffee with multipurpose trees; nutritious vegetables; and beneficial animals and insects in the same garden. This innovative approach helps to mitigate effects of climate change and diversify the revenue streams of the farmers.

Primary processing service:

We provide small-scale coffee pulping facilities to smallholder coffee farmers, through the hub approach. In Robusta coffee growing areas, the hubs provide mobile pulping services; In the Arabica coffee growing areas, the hubs provide stationery pulping services. By providing the processing services, we enable smallholder farmers to add value to their coffee and thus increase their revenue.


2. ONGOING PROJECTS

In addition to our in-house initiatives, Mara Agribusiness collaborates with external partners to amplify the impact of our efforts.

Discounted Input Distribution

Currently in progress, our USAID supported project aims to address the input needs of small holder coffee farmers in the Elgon region. By partnering with the United States Agency for International Development (USAID), Mara Agribusiness is contributing to broader initiatives that promote sustainable agriculture and community development.

Skilling of Youth for DIT Certification

Our commitment to collaboration continues with ongoing projects such as the AVSI skilling projec with youth in Mityana District. These initiatives underscore our dedication to continuous improvement and adherence to international standards in the agriculture sector.

Food Security Standard Certification

The Food Security Certification project is implemented in collaboration with Meo Carbons Solution and Welt Hunger Hilfe to certify small holder coffee farmers in the Elgon region following the food security standard. The certification will help to open the premium markets for coffee from the farmers


PREVIOUS PROJECT

MARA COFFEE ADVISORY PROJECT

The Coffee Advisory Services is a CSR Project for Jacobs Douwe Egberts (JDE) which has been designed and implemented by us. The goal of the project is to create Sustainable Rural Youth Employment by empowering Ugandan youth to be engaged in the coffee sector and provide coffee advisory - through the Coffee Advisory Field Officer (CAFOs) and Coffee Advisory Agents (CADAs) - to coffee farmers across the country.

Area Of Operation

Kamuli, Mayuge and Mityana, Luwero and Masaka.

MARA Agribusiness was among the winners of the Coffee Innovation Fund (CIF) of GIZ – 2021. The mobile youth coffee processing services of MARA Agribusiness solved post-harvest and on-farm value addition challenges faced by smallholder coffee farmers in Mityana district.

Previous Project

Mobile coffee processing services at farmers’ doorsteps

Implementing partners: GIZ & MARA Agribusiness

MARA Agribusiness will increase accessibility of these services by creating youth-managed mobile coffee pulping stations. The pulpers will be mounted on tricycles and moved around the pulping locations by youth at the sub-county level.

The initiative will create 25 direct employment opportunities for urban youth and 150 rural youth indirectly employed.  It will address post-harvest handling challenges at the production level & improve the quality of coffee at farm level.

The project will increase profits gained by the 1650 small-holder farmers from coffee production due to value addition hence attracting more youth to the coffee industry

Area Of Operation: Mityana District.