Koboko DistrictAfter training farmers in Koboko district, close to 150 farmers have made committments to plant their gardens using the principles of Foundations for Farming.
The farmers are in groups with others working as individuals. They are committed to planting high value crops and they want to plant onions because onions have a market everywhere in the country and the neighbouring country of South Sudan.
I am seriously engaged with them and expect the year to be unique.
On the left is a photo showing our agriculture extension officer, Pastor Benjamin Yeka, who oversees the onion project in Koboko. Because of the challenges related to transport and regular visitation I provided him with a bicycle to enable him to regularly visit the farmers. He is so happy and encouraged with the bicycle.
I had a meeting with the members in Nebbi that have previously been trained and guided them on what is profitable to grow. We came up with a crop planting plan for this year beginning with this season.
I met with 50 farmers in Lira who are preparing to plant 0.25 acres of onions. All is going well and we provided them with hoes and seeds.
We are targeting 100-150 farmers that will plant onions as high value crops for market rather than subsistence.
I also met our women's group at Buwenge, a group of 60 women in total although a few did not turn up.
They are planting onions in groups and individuals. They have planted a total of about 5 acres with groups or individuals planting 0.25 acre to 0.5 acre although one or two individuals want an acre each.
This is probably our last district in Uganda where we are involved with developing the low subsistence farmers.
This year we are looking at having an impact in the farmers to practically change their lives through planting onions as a high value crop to enable them to reap some income. We have close to 200 farmers that we have engaged in onion planting on a contract basis - a strategy to enable our plan go through and encourage them to work hard.
We would like to purchase this huge tonnage of onions from the farmers although we do not have any funds set aside. With the demand in Uganda and South Sudan we will be able to create a market or else link the farmers to the market. If we could purchase the onions and market them ourselves at a profit of $0.25 per kg then we could reap a good profit from the expected tonnage of 25-50 metric tonnes.
This year we have involved a total of close to now 300 farmers in meaningful agriculture practice, productive, income generating farming using Foundations for Farming.
Thank you for encouraging us so that we can reach others with the same encouragement.
God bless you,
In His Service
Thomas & Joyce Lubari