Amsterdam flower fair impresses Ugandan farmers

By Joshua Kato in Amsterdam

It is spring here in the Netherlands and the flowers have started smiling! Spring is the period just after winter. It normally falls in April. It is these smiling flowers that welcomed the 2014 best farmers when they landed in Amsterdam on Sunday morning. The 10 farmers are visiting the Netherlands, courtesy of Vision Group, the Dutch embassy in Uganda and KLM airlines.

Just after touching down, the farmers visited the Keukenhof flower show and exhibition. Keukenhof is rated as the most beautiful flower centre in the world.  More than 7 million tulips, daffodils and hyanciths on a 32-acre piece of land.  The Netherlands is rated as the leading grower and exporter of flowers in the world.  Growing Tulips at Keukenhof started over 400 years ago in the 17th and 18th centuries.

The centre only opens twice a year to visits of tourists from all over the world. It is one of few places in the Netherlands where flowers open up in early spring. Flowers open up much later, but at Keukenhof, it happens much earlier.  

The show goers include Asians, Europeans and Americans. “When you look all around here, you see a lot of smiles, thanks to the many colors here,” said John Edwards who comes from England every year for the flower show.   

At most shows in Uganda, visitors find their own way around, on entry here at Keukenhof,  every visitor is given a map of the show area which also indicates whatever enterprise is found at a given location.   

Additionally, there is a fan boat ride for over 45 minutes as the visitors get a tour of the place. The boat ride takes you through part of the flowering gardens. The boat ride is done on a maze of man-made water channels running through the flower gardens.

We can do it
The visiting farmers were amazed by the thousands of visitors coming to look at the flowers. It is estimated that in the two months of the year that the flower show opens, at least 50,000 people visit it every day. With each of these people charged 16 Euros or sh50,000 per day. Additionally, visitors also spend on food, flowers and a boat ride.  

“This is agri-tourism at its best,” said Judith Bakirya, from Busoga an agro-tourism farmer. Bakirya promised to improve on the walkways within her agro-tourism centre and also plant more flowers.

What amazed the best farmers most is the fact that the soils on which the flowers are grown do not look as fertile as the soils in Uganda.



This a big challenge to us as Ugandans. We have a lot of water, even around Kampala but we do not use it for city tours,” Patrick Iga said. He added that the exposure garnered from the visit will help him start a similar project, even if at a smaller scale. “I will start something similar, based on this idea here,” he said. 
   
One unique thing about Keukenhof is that only one enterprise is exhibited. In Uganda, we rarely get farmers shows that entirely focus on one item. Instead the main farmers show in Jinja collects not only farmers, but also people engaged in other businesses.  Although there are restaurants at the show grounds, they are put in specific areas and not scattered all around like the case is with most Ugandan farmers’ shows.  

“You see the level of organization here at this show and realize that it is poor organization that is also affecting us,” Bakirya said. She pointed out that with proper planning, Ugandan agriculture shows can gradually develop to this level.