Sponsors visit nominees for best farmers award
Apr 24, 2014
With the use of simple innovations, one can practise farming in the smallest of spaces. This was the general consensus after the sponsors of the national best farmer’s competition visited two of the farmers in the contest.
By Joshua Kato
With the use of simple innovations, one can practise farming in the smallest of spaces. This was the general consensus after the sponsors of the national best farmer’s competition visited two of the farmers in the contest.
The visitors included Alphons Hennekens, the Netherland’s ambassador to Uganda, Paul Van Apeldoom, the dfcu Bank executive director, as well as John Kakande, the New Vision editor and his deputy, Catherine Mwesigwa.
The team had visited two of the farmers profiled under the best farmers’ competition, ran by Vision Group.
The competition is supported by the Netherlands Embassy, dfcu Bank and KLM Airlines. The competition started in January. Since then, over 1,500 farmers have been nominated countrywide. Of these, over 100 farmers have had their stories published across Vision Group platforms. Nominations are still ongoing.
In September, 10 winners – one from each of the 10 sub-regions – will be selected for a tour of the Netherland, while the top three out of the 10 will share a sh150m prize.
“It is exciting to see people using such small resources innovatively to practise farming,” Ambassador Hennekens said, after touring Dr. Jolly Kabirizi and Dr. Emma Naluyima’s farms on Entebbe Road.
Kabirizi’s backyard zero-grazing farm is in Seguku. She has four heifers and two calves, in addition to several houses on a 20-decimal piece of land.
On the other hand, Naluyima’s farm is located in Bwerenga, off Kawuku on Entebbe Road. Naluyima, the very first farmer to be profiled in the competition, has greenhouse fish farming, a piggery, bananas, hydroponic fodder and passion fruits on just over an acre of land.
“The experience I have got from this visit is that space must not be a problem to practise agriculture. With appropriate innovations, agriculture in Uganda can go to the next level,” said Apeldoom of dfcu.
The visited nominees lauded the best farmers competition, calling it “the best thing to have ever happened to agriculture in Uganda”.
“When my story was run in New Vision, I got tens of people calling me to share more with them,” Kabirizi said.
Likewise, Naluyima said: “I have hosted all kinds of people on this farm, thanks to this competition.”
The team will visit more farmers.