Vegetable production: Smallholder farmers’ pride

Vegetables can also be fed to farmed animals or soaked in water to form what is known as green manure to upgrade soil structure and fertility. For farmers vegetable production can be a well-paying economic activity.

Farming vegetables as a business 
Nakitto Rita Banadda of Banadda SMART Farm, located at Gangu, on Busabala Road, told Seeds of Gold that she and her husband, Benjamin Ssentogo Banadda, both professional teachers, had to quit teaching to take up vegetable farming as a business and they have never looked back.

Banadda SMART Farm which easily passes as one of the best examples of successful farming is only 156 feet by 89 feet. The farm has its own pick-up vehicle and piped water. 

The couple produces sufficient food for their family of six children and has a lot more for sale. “It is the reason we have been able to take all our children to some of the best schools in the country,” Rita pointed out.

Small piece of land 
She said a vegetable farmer does not require a lot of land to make money. She emphasises good soil maintenance as the most important factor for anybody going into vegetable production. 

“We made sure that we have water on our farm all the time regardless of whether it rains or not and even when the taps of the public water supply system are dry,” she disclosed. “We also make sure that our soil is well supplied with organic fertilisers to be productive all the time.”

Agronomy 
They regularly buy one kilogramme of black soldier flies from Kampala City Council Authority Centre, Wankoko which feed on any green plant matter on the farm’s garbage heap and pass out a lot of organic manure for application onto the soil. 

“The flies multiply quite rapidly and within a few days we have nearly thirty kilogrammes of black soldier flies which we give to the hens to eat,” she explained. “We also use poultry manure to keep our soil fertile and productive.”

Fast-yielding 
She advises farmers who want money very quickly to start with fast-growing vegetables such as sukuma wiki, spinach, lettuce and mushrooms. “Within a period of one month after planting, the sukuma wiki farmer begins harvesting and earning money,” she said.

“Moreover the farmer will go on harvesting sukuma wiki for over a year.” She disclosed that mushroom production requires some training in the beginning but it is one of the most money generating activities for farmers with small pieces of land.

She said other vegetables such as onions and tomatoes take up to three months for the farmer to begin harvesting but it is a period that is not really too much for the farmer to wait, especially if he or she diversifies production by planting other fast-growing vegetables.

In urban settings a lot of farmers wait for customers’ right on their farms and there is little need to worry about transport. “It is better to wait and harvest when the buyer has arrived on the farm,” says Nakitto. 

“This even prevents storage worries. The vegetables are purchased by the consumer when it is entirely fresh.” 

Advice on spraying vegetables 
She warns however that if the farmer has to spray any pesticide on the vegetables he or she should wait for some seven days before harvesting to allow for the pesticide to clear off.

She says the vegetable farmers can increase their earnings if they pot some vegetable seedlings for sale. 

“Many urban households have started growing their own vegetables on the verandas or in the backyard of their houses. But they cannot buy a tin of seeds for a vegetable like sukuma wiki,” she argues. “They each probably need about six plants of the vegetable for them to pick just a few leaves every day. So they can come to the farmer to buy potted seedlings.”

Profitable 
Tony Kyambadde, a trained agriculturalist at Masaka Diocesan Development Organisation (MADDO) says vegetable farming is very paying for even smallholder farmers in far off rural areas. 

“As far away as in Bukomansimbi District you will often find trucks with Kenyan registration numbers loading crops such as cabbages, carrots, and tomatoes. What we tell rural based small-scale farmers is to form groups for people growing the same crops. If large groups grow carrots or tomatoes or cabbages and whatever else traders from large cities and even neighbouring countries will go for them wherever they are produced,” says Kyambadde. 

Prioritise 
He emphasises the need for the farmers to prioritise what he refers to as high value vegetables such as tomatoes, eggplants, cauliflowers, carrots, cucumber, and cabbages. 

He says farmers growing such crops can even programme their production in accordance with school terms so that when their children are about to return to school they have vegetables to sell and to pay the school dues or to meet other urgent expenses. 

All farmers under MADDO are strongly encouraged to keep at least a small vegetable garden in the homestead because of their big nutritive value as part of their diet. Like Nakitto, Kyambadde is of the view that for anybody to begin growing vegetables as a business, it is not really necessary to have a large piece of land. 

“It seems to be one of the few remaining profitable enterprises that can be engaged in these days when land is so difficult to buy and most farmers are working on small spaces,” says Kyambadde. 

Livestock and vegetables 
MADDO, the organisation he works with generally encourages crop smallholder farmers to keep livestock as well in order to have easy access to farmyard manure. 

He therefore says vegetable production is made easier when during seedbed preparation livestock manure is mixed with the soil.

Robert Munyoloaganze, a resident of Manywa Village, Kyannamukaaka Sub-county, and Masaka District is a good example of a successful smallholder vegetable farmer. 

He took his first lessons in vegetable production from St Jude Institute of Agro-ecology in Masaka District. 

“We were taught to do farming as a business on a small piece of land,” he says. 

He grows vegetables in rotations on his farm measuring about an acre and he sells most of the harvest to big restaurants in Masaka City. 

He dries some of the vegetables under a solar drier and he crushes them into powder which he packs in bottles and sells at a fairly higher price.

For most of the vegetables the farmer begins with preparing the nursery bed. The soil in the nursery bed should be carefully selected topsoil well mixed with compost. 

Advice 
Farmers growing such crops can even programme their production in accordance with school terms so that when their children are about to return to school they have vegetables to sell and to pay the school dues or to meet other urgent expenses.