Training in integrated farming system

15-01-2014 Nakaweesa Joyce started farming activities as business enterprises. She started receiving training on looking at agriculture as enterprises. She says she took the lead in managing the enterprises. Her Rural People's Organisation Kampiri started to grow as more members joined. They started having so many benefits such as training in crop farming as a business, integration farming systems, bee keeping, wine and fruit processing etc. In Kampiri, they passed an idea of forming specialized study circle groups. She started with small nursery bed of coffee and later expanded to include in more other varieties. Myanzi ACE provided training and 4000 Packets of different species of tree seeds in February 2011 for the start and currently she has a nursery bed with different tree species though she still lacks capital to expand on it. She expects to earn a gross income of 8 million shillings per year.

Every member in the group is free to specialize in two or three enterprises depending on his/her capacity in terms of management, capital, labor and they trained themselves in those enterprises.  

The development on Joyce her four enterprises as follows: Bananas: her farm has expanded from 1-2 acres and she harvests a bunch weighing 120 kgs from the 30 kgs which she was getting before; A piggery project for the start she had one pig and currently, she has 10 pigs; Coffee management: she started with ten platelets and she has planted more 300 plantlets of coffee and poultry keeping: she has 12 local birds

Nakaweesa Joyce praises Myanzi ACE for having trained her in integrated farming system. She has managed to utilize her small piece of land for many enterprises which are doing well. This has helped her in a way that some enterprises’ bi-products are the inputs of the others. Her eucalyptus trees have helped in honey production whereby the bees collect nectar from the trees. The manure from her piggery and zero grazing is used in her banana plantation and the passion fruits are grown on the fence around her one acre piece of land.

Nakaweesa Joyce says that out of her sales, she has got money, her food security has improved she has got what to sell and she is able to pay school fees for her children and other requirements. Two of her sons are in a boarding school and others are in private good day schools. She continues to say that the farm is able to provide everything as far as balanced diet is concerned, milk, eggs, fruits and honey are all available. On the other hand, she says she has little money saved in the SACCO (credit and savings cooperative) after selling some of the farm produce to cater for emergencies. Generally, the farm has become her source of income. However, she says that because of love towards her enterprises, hard work, and positive altitude plus support from

Myanzi ACE, has made her successful and hence be known in the area after the community seeing real things on the ground. She has been empowered and elected as Treasurer at Myanzi ACE and Chairperson Kampiri RPO. She concludes by encouraging women to work hard for the good of their families and the nation at large.