Bagonza the millionaire HOUSEWIFE

By Joel Ogwang 

Many are resigned to their fate; the bedroom is their constituency, children their constituents and home chores, alongside pushing babies, their ‘occupation’. Housewives!

But Jovita Bagonza beat the odds and is making millions from farming. 

“I love nature,” she says. “My dream was to be a successful farmer.” 
Telling Bagonza that agri-business would one day make her a millionaire housewife would be sarcastic, if not sadist.

Then, the 48-year-old mother of four was only a peasant farmer. Fast-forward 15 years later, and you have a modest millionaire.

“I am now living my dream,” she says.

How she started

In 1996, a team of extension workers visited Mukono to identify prospective farmers and ended up at Bagonza’s home.
Bagonza, one of only two Ugandans, flew to Kenya and Indonesia for the ninth Agriculture Apprenticeship Programme (AEP).

On returning, Bagonza bought a friesian cow.

“The cow used to produce between 30 to 35 litres of milk per day. We would consume two litres at home and sell the rest.Each litre went for sh500,” says Bagonza, who dropped out of school in Senior Three.

She used the income to educate her children, run her home and start other projects.

Success

 In 2000, Bagonza ventured into poultry, kicking off with 100 birds. She later added 150 layers, but Newcastle disease struck just when they had started laying eggs, leaving only 18 birds. The National Agricultural Advisory Services gave her 360 birds.

Bagonza has 400 layers currently and gathers nine trays of eggs from them a day. A tray costs sh6,000.

She also tried her hand at piggery, starting off with two sows. Bagonza has 14 sows to-date and sells piglets at sh50,000 each thrice a year.

She now has two friesian cows. 

Due to her proximity to the Uganda Christian University main campus, Bagonza built a students’ hostel. She also runs a catering business.

Bagonza earns about sh28m a year, with sh12m coming from her catering service, poultry (sh7.6m), milk (sh6m) and piggery (sh2.3m).

Her home and enterprises are located on a one-acre plot of land. The enterprises are interdependent. For example, farming (maize husks) feeds the cattle and pigs, whose dung provides manure for her crops.

Bagonza converts cow dung into biogas for cooking. Built by Chinese experts under the AEP in 2000, the biogas project was a token of appreciation for her meteoric rise from peasantry to commercial farming.

“Do not forget to tell the Harvest Money readers that I do not buy food at home; the farm has sorted that out,” Bagonza says.
Bagonza acquired a car in 2009, another followed and finally a sh150m truck to-date.

Plans
Bagonza intends to erect a hatchery, with a parent stock of 200 birds to enrich her poultry business.

“I already have the machine, but we have not yet assembled it,” she says.

Bagonza intends to build a catering training centre. She, too, plans to stock at least five more cattle, five sows and 20 goats on her newly-acquired one-acre land in Kabembe on Kayunga Road.
Bagonza wants to build 15 more hostel rooms.

Facts about dairy cattle

Dairy cows are bred specifically to produce large quantities of milk. They are required to give birth to one calf per year to continue producing milk.

They are usually artificially inseminated within three months of giving birth. These high milk producing cows are only productive for an average of three years, after which they are culled and the meat is normally eaten.

Historically, there was less distinction between dairy cattle and beef cattle, with the same breeds used for both milk and meat. However, in the developed world today, farmers generally keep either beef or dairy cattle.

Female dairy calves are usually reared on for milk production. Dairy cows produce some male calves, which are generally less suitable for beef production.