Best Farmers 2025: Patrick Olobo emerges best in Lango Region
The farm adds value to their products and although they have many enterprises, each of them is equally productive and very clean
VISION GROUP | HARVEST MONEY | BEST FARMERS | LIRA
Patrick Olobo of Ayac cell in Amach Town council, Lira district earned a name for growing, promoting and guiding farmers to take up banana growing as an alternative food security and income generation.
A secondary school teacher by profession who served in government for nine years and abandoned the classroom has been commonly named Olobo abolo, literally meaning Olobo banana expert for his role in the crop.
He is not regretting leaving white collar job since he earns double his past salary from the enterprise he started venturing into when COVID-19 hit the World in 2020.
COVID-18 outbreak prompted the government of Uganda to impose restrictions on movement and businesses but agriculture was never restricted.
By that time (2020) Olobo thought the only safe option to escape the virus was to engage in vigorous digging and sweating.
He spared most of his time directing his energies to till gardens and opened fields for banana planting.
“I was afraid to contract COVID-19 so I decided to come back here and get engaged in manual digging,” he says. He was living at Angwet-Angwet in Lira City.
Starting serious farming
Olobo opened two acres and dug 470 holes then started sourcing a variety of bananas commonly grown and consumed by communities.
He secured seven stems of FIHIA 17 and Plantain bananas commonly known as Gonja and planted them.
His hope of reaping the output was not quick as he could imagine but continue swimming in poverty for two years.
In 2022 he started seeing some ray of hope since bananas had started rewarding. The former civil servant began noticing economic values in it.
“I felt relieved because I stayed for a long time without touching money which almost made me run mad,” he says.
He said was inspired by COVID-19 poverty prompting him to get into serious farming.
By that time people who were dealing in agricultural produce were allowed to travel freely.
Out of the many holes he dug Olobo secured only seven stems which yielded too many clusters and supported them for food security and income generation.
According to the judges, Olobo won because he is doing an enterprise that many other farmers are yet to pick up in Northern Uganda. “He has showed that bananas can actually be grown in Northern Uganda,” Augustine Mwendya, one of the judges said.
This is the tenth year running that Vision Group, together with the Embassy of the Netherlands, KLM Airlines, dfcu Bank and Koudijs Animal Nutrition, are running the Best Farmers competition. The 2025 competition run from March to November, culminating in today’s awards ceremony.