HE GETS SH5M MONTHLY

May 20, 2009

It is rare to find a car parked by the roadside next to a shamba. But with Mugwanya Muye, this is the case. He drives to his banana and coffee shambas just like any other person going to office. He parks it by the roadside and enters his shamba to work.

By Joshua Kato

It is rare to find a car parked by the roadside next to a shamba. But with Mugwanya Muye, this is the case. He drives to his banana and coffee shambas just like any other person going to office. He parks it by the roadside and enters his shamba to work. This may not be an air conditioned office, but to Mugwanya, it is his office. His farm is found in Kakindu sub-county, Nsambya village, Mityana district.

Mugwanya has been a farmer for many years. “I started farming when I was still a sub-county chief. It was for subsistence.

However, after sometime, I was transferred to Madudu sub-county, which is far away from my farm. Supervision and my personal input on the farm became hard,” he says.

In 2006, he joined elective politics. “He stood as a councillor in the Mityana district administration which he won and appointed the deputy speaker. “This meant that I had time to come here and work on my farm,” he says.

His dream is to have 10,000 coffee trees and tens of thousands of bananas. Working with the National Agricultural Advisory Services (NAADS), Mityana, he was able to acquire initial seedlings for both the coffee and bananas.

“I got 400 banana suckers from NAADS. I bought another 400. I have already ordered another 1,800 suckers,” he says. By the middle of this year, he will be harvesting at least 100 bunches monthly from his banana shamba.

Selling each at sh5,000, Mugwanya will earn sh5m monthy!
His advantage is that he is on the main road, thus able to attract people driving or riding by. “When I am here, people just stop, make their selection of bananas,” he says. Some buy suckers and others buy bananas.

The long term plan is to have coffee as the main produce. At the moment, part of the coffee that he first planted has started yielding. “I harvested 25 bags of coffee last season,” he says. He targets at least 200 bags in the next three years.

He is, however, disturbed by fellow coffee farmers who harvest immature coffee. “They have affected out noble business,” he says. Mugwanya says that if a Ugandan farmer is to fully benefit from their produce, value addition is important.

“We have to start producing our own ready coffee. For example, process our juices from the plenty fruits and pack our produce for direct export. That is the only way we can benefit from agriculture,” he explains.

Mugwanya adds that one of the reasons farmers fail is that they do not keep proper records. “I keep records, which enables me to know how my shamba is fairing. All farmers who want to succeed must keep records,” he says. He says that you might think that you are producing profitably, while you are in actual sense making losses.

FACTFILE
Name of Farmer: Mugwanya Muye ‘chief’
Farm location: Kakindu, Mityana.
Size of the farm: Over 20 acres.
Enterprises: Coffee and Bananas.
How he started: On a subsistence level.
How he markets: On the farm
Winning formula: Dedication to farming.
Contact of farmer: 0773842333.

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