TILT initially provided six small, portable gas-powered flour mills for a womens’ entrepreneurial project in which groups of responsible women in a village are capitalized with a flour mill to start a business milling flour for their local area.

More recently, TILT provided grants totalling approximately $20,000 to fund three fixed maize milling centers in the Nebbi and Zombo districts. Profits from these milling centers are being used not only to sustain and grow the businesses, but also are being used to seed other local businesses, such as poultry production,

Gas-powered flour mill

Each mill is managed by a group of VSLAs. Because each VLSA is limited to 30 participants, the success of the Nebbi mill has led to an additional four VSLAs being formed to accomodate additional members. The established VSLAs are mentoring and overseeing the new VSLAs to give them a chance of success.

The packaging equipment used is also used to package maize and bean as Qualified Declared Seed meeting government certification requirements for consistent quality. This increases the value and price of the seed that is sold, providing both a financial benefit to the VLSAs responsible for the facilities and an improvement in crop yield throughout the area.