Best farmers winner to motivate fellow women
Dec 12, 2018
Over the years the competition has been dominated by male winners sweeping the top spot for four consecutive years.
PIC: The Netherlands Ambassador to Uganda Henk Jan Bakker (right) and Dfcu's managing director Mathias Katamba (left) hand over a cheque to Betty Mbazira (third-left) , the overall winner of Best Farmers competition as her daughter Natasha Mbazira (2nd left) looks on (File photo)
AGRICULTURE
It is no longer a men affair as a woman for the first time in five years beat men to become the overall winner of the Best Farmers Competition.
Last week, Betty Mbazira from Isingiro District was presented the top award after beating fierce competition from various male farmers. Mbazira was given a plaque and dummy cheque worth sh50m from dfcu Bank.
Over the years the competition has been dominated by male winners sweeping the top spot for four consecutive years.
The competition is organised by Vision Group, with support from the Embassy of the Netherlands, dfcu Bank, KLM Airlines and Koudjis Nutrition BV.
Even though Mbazira claimed top spot, the competition is still male dominated. Out of 13 farmers that were awarded this year, only four of them were women.
The four women included Shamim Napakol Osekeny Bukedea district, Faridah Lutale from Arua District, Joice Acan from Gulu District and Mbazira.
The men were the 2nd overall winner, Alosious Lubega Wakiso District and the third overall, Julius Bataamye from
Others are Patrick Ssekimpi from Luwero district, Deo Mugisa Bunyangabu District, Moses Kiptala, Kween District, Vincent Ojok Lira District, David Wamai Manafwa District, John Ruhombe Kamugisha from Kiruhura and Abel Kiddu from Kampala.
The winners will share sh150m in form of farm equipment and a fully paid tour of the Netherlands.
Dr Emma Naluyima, one of the judges of the best farmers' competition says land ownership and decision making in families is one of the main obstacles to women involvement in commercial agriculture.
"If women owned land we would see many in the competition. However I would like to challenge my fellow women to believe in themselves and work with their family members as business partners," Naluyima says.
To the women who were awarded this year they believe the status quo can be changed if women believe in themselves more.
"I believe women can make a difference in farming but many are not empowered both financially and regarding decision making.
But I believe our winning should be an inspiration to other women and I will be working with fellow women to improve on their farming. However for better results women do not have to work in isolation but with their partners or families," Mbazira says.
Shamim Napakol says there could be more women in farming but do not cut the mark to compete in the competition.
"If you move around the country you would see very many women doing farming the problem is they lack money and information to upgrade from small scale farming," Napakol says.
She also states that majority of the women have a high dependency syndrome on men and still believe every time a man should take the lead.
"If you are doing farming on small scale it is time to thinking big and expands the farm to start earning money from it. Don't stay home waiting for handouts from the man but work with the man as a partner," Napakol says.
Faridah Lutale from Arua says women would make good farmers especially stay-home house wives since they have a lot of time at home.
"I started farming alone drawing my inspiration from my mother. Because my husband used to stay away I did it myself and when he saw me progressing he supported me and we are now winners," Lutale says.
She however says women need to be empowered engage in commercial farming which is money venture.
"Faming provided you with money and food security for the family. Instead of starting business they should engage in farming," Lutale says.
Joice Acan from Arua said the challenge facing women is failure to access financial services to boost their farming businesses and dependency on husbands.
"I own the land where I'm doing the farming but that is not the main reason why I'm successful. I'm successful because I'm focused on the future and to me the future is farming. I don't look at my husband's success as my success that I have to seat back," Acan says.
Since the competition begun in 2014 only 17 women have been awarded out of the 59 farmers.
In 2014, there were three women in the top 10 while the 2015 group had only Diana Nsubuga Nambatya.
This is why the 2016 competition had a special category for women. So, in 2016, the group had a total of six women winners. These included three women in the main category and three women under the special category.
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