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Welcome on our website

Welcome on the website of the project “Capacity building in the floriculture sub sector in Uganda”. This project started in the year 2006 and is aimed at developing tailor made education and training courses for the floriculture sector in Uganda. This website provides you detailed information on the project plan, the partners and the results. In case you would like to receive additional information, please, do not hesitate to contact one of the project partners.

First batch of graduated Diploma students joint the flower industry.

Two Years ago the first students started with the revised competence based floriculture training at BAC and MMU. A lot of work was done during this time by the students and the teachers to adopt the new system which was introduced by the Dutch consortium. Despite the fact that the developing of the curriculum, the training material, the construction of the two greenhouse training units and the teaching to the students was done at almost the same time, the students performed very good. The graduation of the first batch of students will be this month. Almost half of the students has found already a job in the flower industry. Some of them stayed after the 8 weeks internship on the same farm and others found a job on their own and with the help of UFEA who could play a good role as a sort of recruitment office for the industry. Despite the fact that the industry suffers from the recession there is still a need for new staff with a good hands on mentality and knowledge of floriculture.

Impact of the financial crisis on the floricultural sector

The world financial crisis does have a big impact on the flower industry. These developments have also an impact on the flower industry in Africa. The economic crisis hits the flower industry severely. The total sales are dropping fast and many flower producers face serious problems. For more information, see website of the EastAfrican.
See also the article, published december 2008, about the flower industry that Bram Wicherink compiled on the basis of news messages from various sources. The article can be downloaded here.

New Practical Short Courses

In consultation with the business community a new practical short courses program has been developed, as follow-up of the Applied Tropical Floriculture Course (ATFC). The program will be implemented under the responsibility of UFEA and targets the following groups:
- Employees of flower farms;
- Smallholder floriculture producers;
- Floriculture diploma students;
- Employees of service providers.
The new program, which is due to start next year, consists of 19 modules. It is possible to follow specific courses or a complete program. Participants completed the full set of modules receive a UFEA certificate of completion.

Number of Students Growing

After the first year of the Horticulture Diploma Course, the institutes actively promoted the courses resulting in a growing number of students enrolled in the Diploma course. At Bukalasa Agricultural College 25 students are following this course and at Mountains of the Moon University 15 students. They can make use of the new facilities: the first roses are growing in the new greenhouses and the new utility buildings are in use, although still some work needs to be done to make these facilities fully operational as it was planned. In addition, a large shipment of teaching materials has been arrived at the institutes to facilitate appropriate training and education.