Best farmers: Meet Nicholas Matsiko

Matsiko is a 42 year old Mechanical Agricultural Engineer who has discovered his niche in agriculture, to which he is so devoted that he would love to see people his age get more attracted to the sector. He is a knowledgeable, energetic and very innovative farmer who is fulltime on the farm located in Kashaari, Mbarara district. 

Matsiko operates on over 50 acres of land, on eight of which he grows bananas, passion fruits on five and maize for silage on forty. He also rears 36 cows in zero grazing from which he collectively earns sh100m per year. 

The farm is highly mechanized, with an automated milking process, grass threshers, hummer mill, chuff cutters, silage compactor - which he acquired at sh14m, generator and tractor. The milk produced is supplied to a milk collection centre at nearby town. 

He is very particular about record keeping and has hired a consultant to streamline the books of accounts. He does research, trains his managers in fodder and calf management, animal hygiene, shares new concepts with them and also with other farmers, even from as far as Kenya. 

Despite his background in agricultural machinery salesmanship, he is knowledgeable and eloquently passionate about farming and has attracted his peers into farming. 

Matsiko employs twelve people permanently, among whom is a trained Farm Manager and up to 15 casual workers as need arise who help Him and his wife run the farm. 

One of the main challenges while starting out was water shortage, which he has managed to overcome by constructing a 600,000litre capacity water reservoir. He still faces challenges in form of expensive labour with only women ready to work yet they are physically challenged for some tasks, low milk prices, high energy costs that come with operating power generators. 

He keeps books of accounts and has hired a consultant to streamline knowledge acquisition. Matsiko also trains his managers in fodder and calf management, animal hygiene and shares new that he learns concepts with them.