{
  "id": 4275374,
  "title": "Uganda: Direct Sales Give Eastern Uganda's Cotton Farmers a Stronger Hand",
  "url": "https://urgent.news/2026/08/29/uganda-direct-sales-give-eastern-ugandas-cotton-farmers-a-stronger",
  "topic": "business",
  "section": "Business",
  "published": "2026-08-29T20:50:28.000Z",
  "source": {
    "name": "AllAfrica",
    "slug": "allafrica",
    "url": "https://allafrica.com/stories/202608290160.html"
  },
  "original_language": "en",
  "account": null,
  "summary": "Cotton farmers in eastern Uganda are gaining more control over their livelihoods by bypassing traditional middlemen and selling their cotton directly to ginneries or in collective arrangements. This shift is empowering farmers, particularly women, to invest their earnings in assets such as houses, education, and productive assets like oxen. Nighty Acen, for example, sold her cotton directly to Iki-Iki Cotton Ginnery, which allowed her to avoid low prices and subpar weighing scales often imposed by middlemen. The model is gaining traction within a sector that supports 150,000 to 200,000 smallholder households across 75 districts, contributing to UGX1.045 trillion in farmer income and US$348 million in lint exports over the past decade. While challenges such as unreliable weather, pests, and fluctuating prices persist, direct market access is providing farmers with greater control over the post-harvest stage of cotton production.",
  "key_points": [],
  "editors_take": null,
  "illustration": null,
  "coverage": {
    "outlets": 1,
    "also_reported_by": []
  },
  "ai_generated": true,
  "disclaimer": "Summaries, key points and the editor’s take are written by software from other outlets’ reporting and may contain errors — always check the linked original."
}