Former servant now successful sugarcane farmer

Dec 27, 2010

<b>My Way:<br>Samuel Lukwago</b><br>LIFE was hard in the home where Samuel Lukwago worked as a servant.

By Stella Naigino

My Way:
Samuel Lukwago

LIFE was hard in the home where Samuel Lukwago worked as a servant.

ON top of mistreating him, Lukwago’s boss would often delay his salary, or pay him in kind — with leftovers after everyone else had eaten.

“The only reason I continued working was because I had nowhere to go and I desperately needed the food. I would envy school-going children because mine were at home sometimes without even food to eat,” Lukwago recalls.

Falling sick for him was out of question because he would be accused of pretending. As a result, his boss would not give him money to go to the hospital.

The suffering inspired him to work harder. His dream was to be his own boss.

And indeed, Lukwago is today living that dream as a successful sugarcane farmer in Kitale village, Mukono district.

Surprisingly, farming was not Lukwago’s dream career. He used to think farming was worse than working as a domestic servant. All that changed however, on testing the sweet harvest from his sugar cane project.

How he started
While still working as a domestic servant, Lukwago had seen several people who had ventured into farming come out successful. In 2003, armed with sh500,000 in savings, he decided to imitate them.
But it was not as easy as he had imagined. He first planted sweet potatoes and cassava on four acres of land he had rented for a year. The yields were good, but there was no market yet he had to pay sh200,000 to the owner of the land.
“With nowhere to sell the sweet potatoes and cassava, I was forced to store them. The children ate some while the rest eventually went bad,” Lukwago says.
In 2005, he decided to venture into sugarcane growing. He also hired six more acres.
He started off by buying 10 sacks of planting material at sh5,000 each.
To ensure his family had enough food, he also planted some sweet potatoes and cassava. Like the first time, the harvest was good and this time he was able to sell some of the yield to his neighbours.
Today, Lukwago is earning more from his sugarcane than some of the people he found already engaged in the enterprise. He attributes his success to the suffering he faced as a domestic servant, which conditioned him for hard work.

Achievements
With earnings from the sugarcane, Lukwago has bought 10 acres of land and constructed a home for his family. He can also afford to take his children to good schools.
Because of his steady income, financial institutions have always been willing to lend Lukwago money, which he has used to improve his farm.

Challenges/costs
The area where Lukwago’s sugarcane plantation is located is prone to flooding, so some of the planting material would not germinate.
To save his sugarcane from rotting as result of too much water, Lukwago set up a network of channels to drain away excess water.
Lukwago also buys chicken droppings at sh60,000 a truck from Biyinzika farmers.
Sugarcane takes 18 months to mature and needs to be weeded several times if it is to grow well. Lukwago employs several workers to help him with the weeding.
With many people in the area growing sugarcane, sometimes there is a glut, which forces Lukwago to reduce his price.
“Rich traders prefer to buy their sugarcane from deep in the villages since it is cheaper. The traders say we urban farmers are very expensive” he laments.
He has recently been forced to start spraying his sugarcane to protect against pests that affect its quality.

Marketing
In spite of all the difficulties, Lukwago is grateful he can earn sh3m a year, which is much more than what he used to earn as a domestic servant.
Sugar cane prices have also started going up as a result of a growing demand created by traders from Southern Sudan who offer higher pay.
“Today, you have to pay at least sh500 to get a sugarcane. In the past, farmers were offered as little as sh50 for a sugarcane,” he recalls.
Lukwago sells his sugarcane to the local community and people from different parts of the country at between sh500 and sh800 per sugarcane.
However, Lukwago says business men from Juba are willing to pay as much as sh600 for each sugarcane, which has boosted his income.
“I can earn about sh300,000 from a tonne of sugarcane if sold to the traders from Juba,” Lukwago reveals.

Plans
Lukwago plans to buy a truck to help his customers transport the sugarcane from his field to the market. He also plans to set up a beverage company to extract juice from the sugarcane in order to increase his earnings. He also hopes to buy more land to expand his sugarcane plantation and also diversify into other crops.

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