Abstract:
This report outlines the biography, activities carried out, skills gained and challenges faced while carrying out my internship at Bugisu Co-operative Union. This internship lasted for 10 weeks from the 28th of February to the May of 2022. The internship's purpose was to equip students with practical knowledge and skills and also enable student to relate class knowledge with the knowledge acquired from the field. It also builds confidence among students as we interact with the working people.
During my internship, I was attached to the liquoring department that handled agriculture students where I was briefed about the mission, vision, objectives, history, and organization structure of BCU. It then followed the nursery bed management that involved growing coffee t from the site and seed selection, preparation, transplanting, and field management to harvest post-harvest practices of Arabica coffee. I was also introduced to secondary coffee processing and value addition that involved quality analysis, hulling, grading, colour sorting, of coffee beans for export purpose and value addition. In value addition I was taught how to roast, weigh and package coffee for sale. This was followed by how coffee was marketed to reach its consumers.
I faced several challenges during my internship which were inadequate equipment to use for-example in nursery bed, inadequate expertise to operate some machines that process Arabica coffee. This marked the success of my internship where I can now manage Arabica coffee right from the seed or garden to the cup.
