Martin Kananura is best Farmer in Uganda

VISION GROUP | HARVEST MONEY | BEST FARMERS | MBARARA

Martin Kananura, who retired from the classroom to empowering communities with better farming practices, has been named the best farmer in Uganda, at the 2023 Best Farmers' Awards event at vision Group head offices.

After serving 37 years as a primary teacher and head teacher, Martin Kananura took a decision in 2020 to bring to an end his teaching profession and turn his focus to farming as a business. At the time of his retirement, Kananura was the head teacher of Mbarara Municipal School in Mbarara City one of the many schools he served from the time he joined the teaching profession in 1983. He decided to utilize his retirement resources and period to upgrade his farm. He named it “Rwenjeru Agro-Tourism Demonstration and Training Farm. 

He had been farming since 1994, doing it on land he inherited from his parents but kept adding pieces of land using his savings. Sitting on 200 acres of land, Kananura’s farm is found in Rwenjeru parish-Mbarara North constituency in Mbarara City. It provides the best atmosphere for leisure and recreation. Because of these investments, Kananura emerged as the best overall winner of the 2023 best farmers competition. 

“Kananura won because of his integration of several enterprises in addition to supporting the community around him,” Prof. Ogenga Latigo one of the judges observed. 

Every tree at his farm has a, inscription of its botanical name with a translation in Runyankore. His farm has over 200 heads of cattle, 40 acres of banana plantation, acres of horticulture, more than 150 goats and about 50 sheep. He is also into rabbit rearing with over 200 rabbits.  

He has modern methods of farming which include an irrigation scheme, animal feed processing, dairy products branding and blending. Kananura told New Vision that saving was key to his success as he started saving as early as at the time when he was still getting sh470 a month, and at the retirement stage he had saved enough to grow his farming as a business. He warned Ugandans especially the youths against living luxurious lifestyles and forget to save for their future. 

Kananura started teaching as a Grade III teacher from Shimoni Teachers College at the time of his retirement he had upgraded to a Master’s degree in Education Management and Planning. 

Enterprises
He has cows, sheep, goats, also looks at crops and has a banana plantation. Has feeds for cattle, green vegetables, has an apiary, looks after rabbits, looks after fish. He started all these programs so that even people with small pieces of land can get a chance of how to look after a certain project to improve their incomes. 
“When you have income you can educate your children, have medical bills covered, eat well and have a good life, so as a teacher this is why I decided to continue with my profession of teaching and this time teaching old people,” he said. Kananura said he partnered with agricultural institutions allowing students to go and do practical work at his farm describing this as another form of teaching.
•         Goats- also cross breeds and indigenous
•         Sheep entirely indigenous local breeds
•         Animal feeds
•         Market vegetables
•         Waste product recycling
•         Apiary (bee Keeping)
•         Poultry Farming with mixed brands
•         Dairy Farming with cross breeds and indigenous cows

This is the eighth 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 2023 competition run from March to November, culminating in today’s awards ceremony.