Uganda Martyrs University agricultural exhibition inspires community farmers
Among the biggest attractions was the mushroom farming stall, where students demonstrated mushroom cultivation and value addition.
Students from St. Mary's SS Nkozi taking notes during the exhibition. (Photos by Mathias Mazinga)
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Uganda Martyrs University (UMU) recently hosted an agricultural exhibition that brought together students, farmers, researchers, academicians, agribusinesses and community members to showcase innovations aimed at transforming agriculture.
The day-long event, held at the university's main campus in Nkozi, Mpigi District, on April 24, 2026, attracted a wide range of stakeholders from the agricultural sector.
UMU agriculture students at their stall.
One of the highlights of the exhibition was the active participation of UMU agriculture students, who mounted the largest number of exhibition stalls. Through their displays, the students showcased innovative agricultural technologies and products while promoting environmental conservation, healthy nutrition, organic farming practices and modern commercial agriculture.
Another crowd-puller was a stall featuring animal health equipment such as drenching guns, dosing syringes, hypodermic syringes and mineral blocks. Students also demonstrated fodder grass cultivation and black soldier fly farming, among other innovations.
Other notable exhibits included sweet potato wine, avocado oil, banana-fibre products, rabbit urine manure, improved banana farming techniques and clothing made from recycled paper waste.
The exhibition was further enriched by the participation of the university's partners, who not only showcased their products and services but also provided valuable information on where farmers and community members could access agricultural inputs, technical support and training.
Participating partners included AgroDiverse, Rainbow Agrosciences, Farmplus Agrovets Uganda, Shyova Seed Uganda Limited, His Grace Demonstration Farm, Agnes Zabali Women's Group Kammengo, Agency for Integrated Development, Uganda Youth at Risk Development Network, Buganga Tuli Bumu Development Cooperative Society Limited, among others.
What the participants say
UMU students display their organic fertilizers.
Sass Fibre, UMU student: My exhibition was intended to raise awareness and provide solutions to the effects of gross environmental degradation. I showed people how products such as necklaces could be made from paper-waste.
Linder Nampeera, Women’s Group Kammengo: We add value to coffee using traditional methods. We have shown people the process; right from harvesting to sun-drying, frying and final pounding of the fried coffee in a wooden mortar, using a pestle. The young people have liked our coffee because of its traditional aroma and flavor, to which they are not used.
Dan Achai, UMU student: It was a privilege for me to teach teenage students from St. Mary’s SSS Nkozi how to practice organic banana farming. I feel I have skilled future agricultural entrepreneurs. I have taught them about rich banana species, locally referred to as Mpologoma and Nakitembe. But I have also enjoyed the exhibitions of the local farming groups and cooperative societies. One exhibitor has surprised us with the breadfruit, a nutritious and medicinal fruit, which we thought was a jackfruit!
Joseph Senabulya, exhibitor: This exhibition has given us the platform to have a working interaction with the young people in the university. Certainly, we have had mutual benefits. We have learnt from each other’s exhibitions.