BUSCOLES is a not-for-profit Social Enterprise, registered as a company limited by guarantee, established to primarily improve the socio-economic and environmental welfare of rural households, with a special focus on youth and women. Our social enterprise goal revolves around: i) Jackfruit Value Chain Development (through value-addition to reduce post-harvest losses) and, ii) promoting Community Agroforestry as a Climate-smart Agricultural technology, both targeting to address climate change while recuding household poverty. The company’s pathway to this goal is along facilitating farm families to expand their Jackfruit growing as a business, recruiting more farm families into the Jackfruit value chain, buy the fruit from the farmers, process it and market it for them so that they get fair prices and enhance their household incomes. The founder subscribers believe that upstream investment in the Jackfruit Value Chain in Uganda will ensure enhanced production of Jackfruit of premier quality for the local and export market and a broadened uptake of the fruit at the household level across the country thus increase farmer productivity and profitability.

To manage the downstream product quality, BUSCOLES  is investing time, knowledge, skills and financial resources to establish and maintain a community-based Jackfruit Value Chain development effort backed up by a modern fruit processing plant (complete with climate smart technologies including: Hybrid Solar Dryer; fruit juice extractor; dry fruit powder processor; Fresh Green young fruit canner; and waste management plant – as an accessory) processing facility that will buy both young green and mature ripe fruits from the Contract Farmers network and process to supply the local and international market with premium Jackfruit products.

To achieve this, the social enterprise has acquired an eight-acre freehold land property in Kaliro District, Eastern Region of Uganda, where a Jackfruit growing demonstration Orchard has been established (now 7 years old, mature and in fruit) where the processing plant is to be set up. A fruit tree main nursery has been established to supply quality-controlled seedlings of appropriate vigour and specie, to supply Contract Farmers for annual planting. The tree nursery operators have been trained about the role of the tree nursery in addressing climate change. This content will be passed on to all tree suppliers for them to appreciate their greater contribution to addressing climate change. Alongside the demonstration orchard, the company has, over the last 7 years focused on recruiting and enabling Contract Farmers to plant the fruit tree on their farm holdings. The trees on the demonstration orchard and those of the initial contract farmers are now mature and fruiting. These will provide the very initial supply of fruits for processing at the company processing plant in Kaliro.

We attach a very high premium to our health and wealth of our contract farmers. To this effect, our contact Social Business Promoters (SBPs) go to the farm families and producer groups armed with, and leave behind a “Family Welfare Information Pack”. The pack has vital information on;

1. Current and future impacts of climate change,
2. Sustainable use and management of environment and natural resources
3. Jackfruit growing as a business;
4. Opportunities for affordable agricultural/business credit;
5. Benefits of Community Group Membership;
6. starting small to medium entreprises through Village Savings and Loan Schemes (VSLA),
7. Household and Personal Hygiene, nutrition and health.

On each visit our promoters take the farmers through the pack and leave when they have linked them to CSOs and LG workers who offer detailed services and or information. The visit is meant to stimulate demand for the information/services. Consumption of the information contributes to the family’s sustained welfare which is created by our household income enhancement interventions through the Jackfruit value chain development.