After a career as a county extension agent, working with farmers who own modern machinery that plows, plants, and harvests fields of hundreds of acres, Ron Overmyer is helping growers in Africa who labor as subsistence farmers but dream of more.

Overmyer, of Oak Harbor, recently returned from a two-week trip to the Kasese District in Uganda where he held training sessions for maize (corn) growers.

The district is a major maize production area for Uganda with about 1,700 farmers in 16 groups comprising a sector that also includes millers, buyers, and suppliers as well as representatives from the government and institutions.

Ron Overmyer of Oak Harbor, held training sessions for maize farmers in Uganda.

The challenge, Overmyer says, is to structure the organization so that growers, collectively, can have an effective voice.

“I was impressed with the leaders that met with me,” he said. “They are very intelligent. They know their challenges. They know their weaknesses. They recognize that they can only solve them by working together. It is similar to the U.S. farming community back in the late 1800s when farmers formed organizations like the Grange to give them a collective voice in dealing with the railroad monopolies. I think they would be successful at it.”

Cultural practices can be a hurdle to improved production, Overmyer said. The Ugandan farmers would like to have their own extension worker to help them in the use of hybrid seeds, timely planting, proper fertilizer use, and harvesting techniques.

Also, they’re seeking assistance with improving storage methods to reduce the loss of grain to pests and mold.

A five-year plan is being formulated to help the growers meet their goals.

“They would like to hire two extension workers,” Overmyer said. “They have an extension agent but it’s more political than here in the U.S. So they don’t interact with the farmers as much as we do here. So they’d like to hire two agents of their own. One to help with cultural practices and the other to help farmers and those that store grain. The first step is to help with education.”

The next step, he said, would be to find assistance to help build granaries that would function like a co-operative.

“The storage would help them keep the grain in good shape,” Overmyer said. “You could then have a larger amount in one location for a buyer who needs it at one time.”

Establishing a credit system is a longer-term goal.

‘Having a credit system would allow them to put up their grain for collateral, which they can’t do right now.” he said. “They could get money for the grain but not actually sell it for three or four months after harvest when the price is up. Right now, most farmers have to sell at harvest because of household bills that are due around harvest time. Prices are low at harvest and then tend to increase during the next four months.”

The farmers Overmyer met have fields of one to three acres and produce about 31 bushels per acre.

Many grow two maize crops per year and most of the field work and harvesting is done by hand – much of that by women.

Still, the area has a capacity for raising 120 bushels an acre with the use of modern technology suited to their needs, according to Overmyer.

He said a business plan being developed includes job descriptions for key people working in the sector.

“We worked on vision, mission, goals, and objective statements that reflected the purpose of the organization,” Overmyer said. “We developed a business constitution that outlined the membership requirements, rights, powers, and obligations of the various stakeholder groups in the organization.”

He volunteered for the assignment through the Farmer-to-Farmer Program administered by the Citizens Network for Foreign Affairs. CNFA operates under the auspices of the U.S. Agency for International Development.

The Kasese District is in western Uganda next to the Congo border.

Overmyer has also worked with growers in Tanzania.

He was the extension agent in Sandusky County for 13 years and in Ottawa County for 17 years before retiring.

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