I have no regrets after dropping school for farming

By JOHNSON MAYAMBA | Tuesday, March 19   2013 

Zaakaliya Lufuga feeding his Freisian cows with maize bran. JOHNSON MAYAMBA | NATION MEDIA GROUP 

Zaakaliya Lufuga,18  completed his ordinary secondary education last year at Nkoyoyo Day and Boarding at Matale in Buikwe District in Uganda. After that, as is the norm, he was supposed to join high school but he did not. Instead he opted to pursue a course of his dreams.

With little skills attained from secondary school agriculture lessons,  Lufuga decided to utilise his father’s land in the village by rearing cattle and growing bananas, a skill he wants to improve to continue earning a living and support my family. He tells his story.

In less than five years, I am now reaping big from this farm at Matale. With a net profit of about $230 a month, it is just enough for me and I do not think of being employed by someone at all.

I now pay my own tuition at Bukalasa Agricultural Institute and also support my four siblings and parents at home.

My dream of becoming a successful farmer started in 2005. I come from a very humble family, which mainly depends on farming. By then I had just completed primary education and my father had no money to take me to secondary school yet I wanted to continue with my studies.

I needed about $60 per term, which I failed to get. I then decided to try my hand at brick-making at home but only managed to make 5,000 bricks which I sold at $60 after a long struggle.

Since it was not enough to take me through even one term given the required school fees and other necessities, I decided to use the money to buy a Friesian male calf.

After rearing it for 18 months, one rich man came looking for an exotic bull to take to his farm and I sold it to him at $495. I then bought an exotic cow in 2007. Soon it produced and I started milking it.

Currently, that one cow I started with has produced five others; three of which are cows where I get milk both for consumption and for sale. On a good day, each cow gives an average of 20 litres of milk. I sell each litre at $0.4.

Too much work

To feed the cows, I planted four acres of elephant grass which I supplement with processed feeds. Also, I hired a hand to feed them, especially when I am busy with my studies unlike in the past when I would do both.

It was too much for me to manage both the farm and study; that is why I hired him to help in my absence.

The cows I milk, I feed each of them with 20kgs of processed maize bran daily in addition to 280kgs of elephant grass and 120 litres of water.

When I do that on a daily basis, I get more milk from them. Apart from rearing cattle for milk, I also have a banana plantation on a five-acre piece of land. While I was still in secondary school, I concentrated more on agriculture as a subject to get skills in having healthy crops and animals on a farm.

Last year, with some money I had saved from selling milk, I started planting bananas. I bought 300 tissue-cultured plantlets at $1 each. Now, each bunch of banana from the plantation goes for between $6 and $9.

I usually harvest 100 bunches in a period of three weeks to one month depending on the demand for matooke (bananas). In a year, I can get a minimum of about $5,000 from bananas alone.

Much as I am already earning from this farm, education is still very important to me. After my diploma studies, I hope to go to the university for a degree course in Agriculture where I expect to get more skills of reviving the agriculture sector in Uganda. That is my dream.

No regrets

Agriculture is a profitable venture that can easily transform people’s lives and lead to the country’s development if managed well. I advise those in the industry to seek help from experts on how to adopt scientific and modern methods of farming if they are to benefit from it.

As for the challenges, I cannot say it has been so easy because I still face them. In the first place, there is when the crops can be attacked by banana bacterial wilt but because I was taught how to treat them, I usually detect it and treat them before it is too late.

Another challenge comes when there is change in the weather. Sometimes it becomes too dry for crops and animals to get enough water, which affects the production. Other times, when it rains a lot, crops are also affected, especially when there are hail storms.

Also, some buyers want me to sell the bananas at a cheaper price. But because I want to make profit too, we haggle and come to an agreement where I do not lose much.

Some bananas are also stolen by thieves from the garden. I come thinking that the bunches are on only to find they have been cut and taken.

On the other hand, I have a challenge with agricultural officers from the government. Usually when they want to show someone that they are working, they come to my farm claiming it is theirs, which is not true. Recently, I had to stop them on the way.

Despite all the challenges, I never give up because I know with agriculture, one can never regret once the yields are good.