Farming tools: Phone

Aug 09, 2011

Is this Mukasa the banana buyer,” he asks the person on the other end. Swaib Kisitu, a farmer in Kyazanga has over 100 bunches of Bananas on his farm ready for harves

By Joshua Kato

Is this Mukasa the banana buyer,” he asks the person on the other end. Swaib Kisitu, a farmer in Kyazanga has over 100 bunches of Bananas on his farm ready for harves.

He was contacting Mukasa, a banana trader in Kalerwe, Kampala about 180km from Kyazanga. In minutes, a deal had been struck and Mukasa could be ready in two days to pick the bananas.

The phone can play several important roles on the farm. If Kisitu did not have the phone, he would have had to travel all the way to Kalerwe to clinch the deal.

Finding better markets can also be done by using the phone. For example, it is easier for a banana farmer in Kyambura, Rubirizi district or Kyazanga in Lwengo district to call St Balikudembe market or Kalerwe market to find out about the current prices. A farmer can then decide whether the price is good enough for him to sell the bananas or not.

This information can be got by either using SMS or directly calling. This way, you can reach many more people cheaply than if you moved.

But to effectively use the phone, you need to have the contacts of relevant persons.

Keeping contacts of your customers and clients, including those who sell you farm inputs is another task a phone executes.

Phones are not such expensive gadgets these days. With as low as sh30,000, you can acquire a handset. As a farmer, a phone is a must-have farm tool.

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