Kalangala farmer earns sh20m from 1 acre
May 26, 2010
YOU may not have heard of his name before, but Ssalongo Lutwama is the most successful farmer on Bugala islands in Kalangala district so far. The 48-year-old, who originally, hailed from Masaka district, left huge chunks of land to settle on one acre and has been in farming as a business for two yea
By Ronald Kalyango
YOU may not have heard of his name before, but Ssalongo Lutwama is the most successful farmer on Bugala islands in Kalangala district so far.
The 48-year-old, who originally, hailed from Masaka district, left huge chunks of land to settle on one acre and has been in farming as a business for two years. A resident of Mugoye sub-county, Lutwama settled on the island in 1992 to do fishing.
“I wanted a daily income and thought I could only achieve my dream through fishing. For the first five years I did not find any problems. But now, the lake has been depleted and we no longer catch the fish as it used to be,†says Lutwama.
When he realised fishing was not sustainable with the dwindling number of fish, the father of five slowly shifted to livestock farming.
He started with two goats (a she and he goat) and raised them on a subsistence scale. He was later joined by other farmers and formed a farmer’s group, Kasamba Development Society.
The organisation’s common goal is to acquire basic skills associated with goat-keeping and to address the problems associated with the enterprise. The group was later given a Boer goat each by the Kalangala District Farmer’s association, which helped improve their local breeds.
Today, Lutwama’s goat population has shot up to 50 and he sells a six-month-old goat at sh100,000 each.
His major challenge though is finding enough land to graze the goats from. “Land is the limiting factor right now, otherwise I have not experienced any serious huddle with goat-rearing,†Lutwama told Christine Ntege, a NAADS board member who was on a monitoring exercise of its activities in the district.
The new NAADS board which was inaugurated late last year by Hope Mwesigye, the agriculture minister, is tasked with monitoring NAADS activities in the countryside.
Lutwama informed Ntege that he intended to remain with fewer goats so he could venture into poultry business since the chicken do not require a bigger area to feed from.
He said he had already started with 50 local chicken and hoped to raise about 200 birds by December.
“My target is 1,000 birds. They are easy to raise. I will only have to fence off another portion of my land and raise them from inside,†he explained.
When he was identified by the NAADS officials in 2007/2008 as a model farmer, he was supported with five pigs. “They gave me four sows and one pig,†he says.
In the first year, Lutwama said, the pigs bore 36 piglets and early this year, 32 more were born. Currently, they have all matured and Lutwama is planning to sell off the females to his neighbours at sh60,000 each.
In total, he says, he has 55 pigs although his target is to have 300. “Although farmers in Kalangala find problems with feeds of different livestock, I am determined to achieve all my targets.†Lutwama’s dream is to sell about 50 pigs every month in the next five years. He also intends to establish an abattoir at the landing site.
“I had one local pig and it did not have a proper housing unit. After the training I acquired from the NAADS programme, I have managed to expand my piggery unit.â€
Also on his one acre of land, Lutwama has planted 150 banana suckers which are ready for harvest now. He applies urine and animal droppings as manure.
He informed Ntege and the district officials that when he gets the market for his banana, each bunch costs sh10,000. However, it has not been easy to find market for the bananas, he added.
That’s not all about Lutwama’s enterprises. A month ago, he opened up a restaurant on the same piece of land to minimise on the losses associated with an unreliable market.
“With the restaurant, I will no longer have banana losses since my wife will sell the food,†he said.
Lutwama also boasts of 18 heifers which give him 40 litres of milk daily. “I sell each litre of milk at sh1,000 and the rest, we drink at home,†he says.
But like the goats, his major challenge remains finding enough land to graze his livestock from. He feeds his animals on banana peelings and also on the grass in the neighbourhood. He owes his success to his parents who had similar agricultural projects in Masaka.
“They taught me how to apply the indigenous knowledge of tilling land,†he says. He also said President Yoweri Museveni’s continuous prosperity-for-all campaigns helped him a lot to utilise his small land for more than a single agricultural enterprise.
“I thought it was not possible, but I am a living example. From all my agricultural practices, I have noticed for the last two years that it is possible to make a gross income of sh20m,†he says.
Lutwama also expected President Museveni to visit his farm early this year during his prosperity-for-all visit to the district. “I did not get a chance to take him around my farm but at least I shook his hands. One day he will visit my farm.â€
Ronald Muteyi, the Kalangala district NAADS coordinator, said the district had received over sh1.3b for NAADS programme since its inception in 2007.
So far, Muteyi said, they had constructed 85 pig sties, distributed 920 piglets, 1,780 sows and weaner bags of feeds to 168 farmers. The programme had also procured 11,610 local and exotic birds with 1,450 bags of feeds and constructed 95 poultry houses for farmers.
Also, 22 in-calf heifers had been distributed to 22 farmers, 3,950 banana suckers distributed to 90 farmers, 119 KTB hives, 17 cacther boxes, five bee suits distributed to 11 farmers.
FACT FILE
Name of farmer: Ssalongo Lutwama.
Farm location: Mugoye sub-county in Kalangala district.
Enterprises: Fishing, Bananas, piggery, goat keeping, local chicken rearing and heifers.
Size of farm: 1 acre.
Contact: (+256) 77-3504-440
YOU may not have heard of his name before, but Ssalongo Lutwama is the most successful farmer on Bugala islands in Kalangala district so far.
The 48-year-old, who originally, hailed from Masaka district, left huge chunks of land to settle on one acre and has been in farming as a business for two years. A resident of Mugoye sub-county, Lutwama settled on the island in 1992 to do fishing.
“I wanted a daily income and thought I could only achieve my dream through fishing. For the first five years I did not find any problems. But now, the lake has been depleted and we no longer catch the fish as it used to be,†says Lutwama.
When he realised fishing was not sustainable with the dwindling number of fish, the father of five slowly shifted to livestock farming.
He started with two goats (a she and he goat) and raised them on a subsistence scale. He was later joined by other farmers and formed a farmer’s group, Kasamba Development Society.
The organisation’s common goal is to acquire basic skills associated with goat-keeping and to address the problems associated with the enterprise. The group was later given a Boer goat each by the Kalangala District Farmer’s association, which helped improve their local breeds.
Today, Lutwama’s goat population has shot up to 50 and he sells a six-month-old goat at sh100,000 each.
His major challenge though is finding enough land to graze the goats from. “Land is the limiting factor right now, otherwise I have not experienced any serious huddle with goat-rearing,†Lutwama told Christine Ntege, a NAADS board member who was on a monitoring exercise of its activities in the district.
The new NAADS board which was inaugurated late last year by Hope Mwesigye, the agriculture minister, is tasked with monitoring NAADS activities in the countryside.
Lutwama informed Ntege that he intended to remain with fewer goats so he could venture into poultry business since the chicken do not require a bigger area to feed from.
He said he had already started with 50 local chicken and hoped to raise about 200 birds by December.
“My target is 1,000 birds. They are easy to raise. I will only have to fence off another portion of my land and raise them from inside,†he explained.
When he was identified by the NAADS officials in 2007/2008 as a model farmer, he was supported with five pigs. “They gave me four sows and one pig,†he says.
In the first year, Lutwama said, the pigs bore 36 piglets and early this year, 32 more were born. Currently, they have all matured and Lutwama is planning to sell off the females to his neighbours at sh60,000 each.
In total, he says, he has 55 pigs although his target is to have 300. “Although farmers in Kalangala find problems with feeds of different livestock, I am determined to achieve all my targets.†Lutwama’s dream is to sell about 50 pigs every month in the next five years. He also intends to establish an abattoir at the landing site.
“I had one local pig and it did not have a proper housing unit. After the training I acquired from the NAADS programme, I have managed to expand my piggery unit.â€
Also on his one acre of land, Lutwama has planted 150 banana suckers which are ready for harvest now. He applies urine and animal droppings as manure.
He informed Ntege and the district officials that when he gets the market for his banana, each bunch costs sh10,000. However, it has not been easy to find market for the bananas, he added.
That’s not all about Lutwama’s enterprises. A month ago, he opened up a restaurant on the same piece of land to minimise on the losses associated with an unreliable market.
“With the restaurant, I will no longer have banana losses since my wife will sell the food,†he said.
Lutwama also boasts of 18 heifers which give him 40 litres of milk daily. “I sell each litre of milk at sh1,000 and the rest, we drink at home,†he says.
But like the goats, his major challenge remains finding enough land to graze his livestock from. He feeds his animals on banana peelings and also on the grass in the neighbourhood. He owes his success to his parents who had similar agricultural projects in Masaka.
“They taught me how to apply the indigenous knowledge of tilling land,†he says. He also said President Yoweri Museveni’s continuous prosperity-for-all campaigns helped him a lot to utilise his small land for more than a single agricultural enterprise.
“I thought it was not possible, but I am a living example. From all my agricultural practices, I have noticed for the last two years that it is possible to make a gross income of sh20m,†he says.
Lutwama also expected President Museveni to visit his farm early this year during his prosperity-for-all visit to the district. “I did not get a chance to take him around my farm but at least I shook his hands. One day he will visit my farm.â€
Ronald Muteyi, the Kalangala district NAADS coordinator, said the district had received over sh1.3b for NAADS programme since its inception in 2007.
So far, Muteyi said, they had constructed 85 pig sties, distributed 920 piglets, 1,780 sows and weaner bags of feeds to 168 farmers. The programme had also procured 11,610 local and exotic birds with 1,450 bags of feeds and constructed 95 poultry houses for farmers.
Also, 22 in-calf heifers had been distributed to 22 farmers, 3,950 banana suckers distributed to 90 farmers, 119 KTB hives, 17 cacther boxes, five bee suits distributed to 11 farmers.
FACT FILE
Name of farmer: Ssalongo Lutwama.
Farm location: Mugoye sub-county in Kalangala district.
Enterprises: Fishing, Bananas, piggery, goat keeping, local chicken rearing and heifers.
Size of farm: 1 acre.
Contact: (+256) 77-3504-440