Have you ever wondered about the process of how the Project collects the chillies and pays the farmers? Here is a step-by-step guide with photos!
1) Chilli farmers arrive with their chillies
The Chilli Field Extension Officers (Zaire, Martin and Victory) organise a two week chilli collection programme, where they visit 2-3 'collection centres' each day, across the districts. There are then a number of radio announcements so that all chilli growers know where and when to bring their chillies. Each collection centre may have 5 - 20 chilli growers who turn up and being their harvest!
This is Kashenyi Church of Uganda, one of the collection centres. As growers arrive, there are happy greetings with the field extension officers. The staff build up good relationships with the growers, as can be seen here!
2) All farmers bring their chillies to a blue tarpaulin for checking and grading by our staff
Chillies come in different grades, for different prices. Therefore it's important for our staff to check the quality of the chillies, so that they purchase them for the correct amount of ugandan shillings.
3) Chillies are weighed
A weighing scale is tied to a tree branch! Growers then come one by one and have their chillies weighed. They are then given a small piece of paper with the weight on, e.g. '4kgs' which they keep for later.
4) Chillies are packed together
Once the chillies have been weighed and individual 'weight tickets' have been given to farmers, the chillies are packed into large sacks to be taken to the project office. Each sack contains around 40kgs of chillies!
5) Paperwork
Growers enter the centre (usually a church) and line up to receive their money. Victor is on the first table; his job is to write on a form the name of the farmer, how many kgs of chillies collected, rate per kg, and total shillings to be given. Victor and the farmer then both sign (or fingerprint if the farmer is unable to sign).
6) Farmers collect their money
Farmers then move to the second table, where they present the form detailing the money to be received. They receive the cash, sign for it, and give a suggestion as to how they will spend the funds.
7) The sacks are loaded onto the chilli truck
The sacks are loaded and taken back to the chilli office in Rukungiri town. Once the harvest is completed, the sacks will be taken to Kampala for export.
