Bushenyi Farmer - 'my farm churns out cash!"
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| Mrs Rwabutwagu with her cow |
In its traditional meaning of the word, a factory is described as a building or buildings with facilities for manufacturing using power driven machinery. Not so for Mrs. Lucia Rwabutwagu in Bushenyi district. In her humble rural home in Ruharo parish Bumbeyire sub county, Bushenyi district she considers her farm a
factory because her farm churns out cash in unexpected millions.
“This is my factory,” she says, pointing at her milk cow that she says produces between17-20 litres of milk per day. Mrs. Rwabutwagu’s has multiple enterprises. Aside from her zero grazed milk cow, she also rears goats, poultry and pigs as well as maintaining a mixed garden. “I get the dung, urine and other waste from the animals and translate them into manure for my gardens. The beautiful thing about these animals is that I feed them from one place and they are easy to manage. I get high yields from them because I maintain them properly,” she
says.
Mrs. Rwabutwagu is one of the selected model farmers in her parish. Her farm is now a demonstration site for the hundreds of enthusiastic farmers eager to learn better farming methods so as to improve production. Prior to her selection she carefully selected and mixed her enterprises, using locally available resources and what she acquired from NAADS, to improve her income.
Her milk cow gives her on average 6 litres of milk in the morning, another 6 at midday and 5in the evening. A litre of milk goes for 400 UGX in Bushenyi town. She also keeps an improved he-goat which other farmers use to improve their local goats at a small fee. Her particular area of knowledge transfer is zero grazing and optimum use of the by-products. Lucia also has a banana farm inter-cropped with pineapples and fruit trees of guava and pawpaw.
To better insulate her farm against the vagaries of climate, she erected a water tank to provide water for irrigation. Furthermore, galleys were built between the banana plants to trap water and make mulching for her crops easier. This has ensured that her farm remains productive even during the dry spells. Nonetheless, Mr. Kamwezi the District NAADS Coordinator is also quick to point out that good farming techniques and hard work are at times all that is lacking to ensure success of a crop.
