Best farmers: Meet Dr. Diana Nambatya

Dr. Nambatya is 32 years old, with a PhD in Public Health, Maternal new born and child health and has three toddlers. She is an urban farmer and runs the Kwagala (Love) Farm in Kulambiro together with her husband, Dr. Fred Nsubuga.

The farm sits on half an acre on which she rears 700 Kuroiler birds, 10 Friesian cows that are zero grazed and grows bananas, vegetables and strawberries from which she earns approximately sh40m per year.

Nambatya is passionate about farming and trains groups, especially corporate companies who want to give their employees out-of-office skills for extra income. She conducts farm visits for women groups and is highly innovative.

She is keen on environmental conservation and uses biogas for lighting and cooking. She sells waste from the biogas plant as fertiliser to other farmers and also processes and packages Kwagala odour neutraliser and Kwagala organic fertiliser.

The Kuroiler cocks are sold at between sh25,000 and sh40,000. However, the biggest income earner is the day-old chicks. She collects around 600 eggs from the chicken house weekly which she takes to a nearby hatchery. Of the 600 or so eggs, at least 570 of them are hatched. Each egg is hatched at shlSO but the day old chicks are sold at sh.2,000 each generating about sh 1.2m weekly.

The milk from the cows is supplied to Kyanja Fresh Dairy while the chicks, vegetables and strawberries are sold strictly on order.

One of the challenges she has overcome is water expenses by harvesting. Other challanges are that demand for her produce surpasses supply due to limited space and high operational costs.

She trains her neighbours and other farmers in land conservation methods and plans to establish a hatchery in future.