Tom Ongom, an elder and founder of the Abur Lango Farmers Cooperative Society, said the use of threshers has reduced the time spent on threshing sorghum compared to the traditional manual hand-beating method.

In July, Uganda Breweries Limited donated five threshers worth about UGX 25 million to benefit 1,000 smallholder farmers across the country, aiming to improve efficiency.

The donation is part of Uganda Breweries’ “Farm for Success” program, which addresses farming challenges related to quality inputs and best practices.

Sorghum is a key ingredient is the manufacturing of beer among other spirits.

Speaking during a meeting with Uganda Breweries representatives in Lira East on December 10, 2024, the farmers noted that the threshers have reduced the time needed for processing.

Manual threshing took two to three days to process two or three bags per person. With the threshers, the turnaround is now 10 bags per hour, without the physical strain that mainly affected women.

“We are very grateful to Uganda Breweries for donating the threshers to help us. Threshing was a major challenge, and women were especially affected, often complaining of itching after prolonged manual threshing. Now they are happy. This year, if I’m not mistaken, they will earn more money and produce more sorghum,” Ongom said.

He also noted that Uganda Breweries has consistently supported farmers with high-quality seeds, which has improved sorghum production.
Isaac Oret, the Cooperative Society Coordinator, said manual threshing had been a big challenge for the farmers. Oret said many people were complaining of back pain. The introduction of threshers has made threshing and cleaning sorghum easier.
“Right now, you can’t compare the price of sorghum with maize. The price of maize is now at UGX 650, but for sorghum, the lowest price it can go is UGX 1,000. This is a good price and the market is ready,” he said.
“However,we are requesting Uganda Breweries to keep the aggregators close to us. We need a local aggregator or somebody from us,” Oret said.

Sheila Sabune, Uganda Breweries’ Corporate Relations Director, said the donation of threshers was part of efforts to ensure farmers produce quality grains.
“We collaborate with farmers to source raw materials for our products, including beer. By being part of the value chain, we empower communities and ensure the quality meets our standards while giving consumers the best,” Sabune said.

Under this program, Uganda Breweries invests UGX 52b annually into farmer communities that supply raw materials used production process, benefiting 50,000 farmers in the value chain.