Best Farmers 2025: Pison Busingye is First Runner up in this year's competition

VISION GROUP | HARVEST MONEY | BEST FARMERS | KIRUHURA

Itungo pasture has become an icon of proper livestock feeding in the south western region and the neighbouring areas as many farmers flock the farm to learn pastures and management.

Making livestock pellets from pastures at Itungo pastures at Kashongi village, Kashongi subcounty in Kiruhura district is among the technologies that attract attention from many farmers in South Western Uganda and the neighbouring areas.

And now, according to the best farmers judges, his consistence in promoting pasture growing as a business. “There is increasing demand for pastures however, many farmers have not yet considered it as a farm business. So, when Itungo comes up and does it consistently, then this is good,” Honorable Victoria Ssekitoleko, the Chief Judge observed.

Pison Busingye the co-founder and director of Itungo pastures explains that the ever increasing demand for pastures drove them into becoming more innovative where they came up with making pellets by using hay, ghee residue, bran among others.

“We started producing ghee from the milk we produce on our farm and that of our fellow members in the cooperative to add value to it. From this process we get residues rich in proteins and fats that provide a nutritious dietary supplement for livestock including cows, pigs, sheep, goats, rabbits and chicken,” explains Busingye.

Making pellets

Pasture pellets are made from quality hay as the main ingredient, maize bran, soya cake and ghee residues or water. “To make pellets, you need a pasture chopping machine to chop hay into very small pieces and a pellet making machine,” explains Busingye.

To produce 100kfs of pellets, they use 50kgs of good hay, 30kgs of maize bran, 10kgs of cotton cake, 5kgs of soy cake, and 5kgs minerals. as a kilo of hay for shs500, a kilo of pellets goes for shs1, 500.

They mix the ingredients properly as you sprinkle ghee residue to moist it. The ghee residue should be very little just to moist the mixture not making it wet. The mixture is then put into the running pellet making machine and the pellets will be ready for consumption immediately.

“The beauty with pellets, it is palatable to the animals especially the young and the animal will get all the ingredients in every piece eaten. Also, because of the growing market across the country, transportation is made easier to move 100kgs of pellets than of hay,” he explains.

Making ghee

Jolly Asiimwe Busingye who is Busingye’s wife and a co-founder and director of Itungo pastures explains that they make Ghee from the milk they get from the comes they have on the farm to increase on the farm incomes.

After establishing the second farm here from Wakiso in 2022, we found out that a litre of milk goes for shs800, which is very little yet a kilogram of ghee goes for shs25, 000 to shs30, 000. One kilogram is made from 10-15 litres of milk which would earn you between shs8, 000 and shs12, 000.

“We keep breeds like  The milk to be used is kept for 24 hours to ferment after which it is then poured into the ghee making machine which is manual and then spine for 25-30 minutes and the ghee will be ready. It is then scooped out and the residue is used to make pellets,’ explains Asiimwe.

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.