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Mixed farming uplifts couple
Jovia Asingwire (L) in her onion garden in Mubende District. Photo by Lominda Afedraru
What you need to know:
Jovia Asingwire and her husband Emmanuel Mugisha are growing bulb onions and other vegetables on a five-acre garden. The farming venture is a step forward for the family that has been into livestock rearing since 2010, writes Lominda Afedraru.
The high demand for onions, spinach and tomatoes in major towns lured Jovia Asingwire and her husband Emmanuel Mugisha to diversify from livestock to growing the vegetables.
The couple’s passion for the vegetables came as a coincidence two years ago when a civil society organisation – Community Care for Development Uganda (C-Care) implementing agricultural innovative technologies came sensitising them in practicing agriculture differently.
The family had also observed demand for the vegetables during their routine visits to major towns including Kampala.
As a dairy farmer, Asingwire would every week travel to the neighbouring towns seeking better market for her dairy products such as milk.
Passion
But it is in these towns where she noticed an interesting scenario — buyers fighting to buy a few vegetables brought to the market by few farmers.
And given her passion in agribusiness, Asingwire saw this as a fresh revenue stream which she could exploit. In 2016, together with her husband, they embarked on vegetable farming on their five-acre farm that had remained fallow for close to a decade.
“My wife and I are compatible, and this makes every part of our dream a reality,” says Mugisha.
Group farming
Asingwire explains that C-Care asked them to form farmer field schools comprising between 30 and 40 members. She joined Twekembe Twezimba farmer field school where they were sensitised to embrace mixed farming using innovative technologies.
“We were sensitised to harvest rain water for agricultural use since Mubende is part of the cattle corridor with low water table and prone to prolonged drought. Other practices include adopting construction of contours in our farms, application of manure, mulching and using a specified piece of land to carry extensive agriculture for food production and commercialisation,” says Asingwire.
Vegetables
To cultivate onions, Asingwire says she propagates their garden using seedlings from a nursery bed or through the sets.
Where seeds are used, they may be established directly in the main field or started in a nursery and later transplanted when seedlings are pencil thick to the main field at a spacing of 30 by 10cm.
Transplanting eliminates the need for thinning but the method is very tedious.
Bulbs mature from 140 days depending on cultivar and weather conditions. Yields of up to 10 tonne per acre are possible. “We harvest between 10 and 11 tonnes per season,” says Asingwire.
In local markets, according to Asingwire, a kilogramme of big red onions ranges between Shs3,000 and Shs4,000 and in an upscale supermarket, a kilogramme costs Shs5,000.
“Our major customers are hotels and middlemen who supply major towns,” Asingwire says.
Tips on growing onions
The common practice is to break or crush the onion stems if there are signs of flower heads. When the stems are dry, dig the bulbs, which can be left on top of the ground to cure and dry for several days.
Setting out onion plants that are too large, planting too early or using the wrong varieties usually causes onions to bolt or form undersize bulbs.
