Farmers enjoy bountiful harvest #uganda

Buoyed by a readily-available market, barley
farmers in Bukwo district have cashed in on the
Nile Breweries Ltd (NBL) initiative by tripling their
production this season.
Since 2011, NBL has been promoting barley
growing in the Sebei sub-region, where Bukwo is
located. Barley is one of the major components
used in making beer. The brewing firm provides
free seeds, inputs and harvest machinery to
farmers.
Already Bukwo Barley Nucleus farm is projecting
a harvest of up 3,120 tonnes of barley, from
some 500 acres of plant field spread across the
district. Compared to last year, Bukwo and the
entire Sebei sub-region under the NBL scheme
produced a paltry 550 tonnes.
Augustine Labu, an assistant manager at the
farm, attributes the bumper harvest to adoption
of improved practices and technology by
farmers. This year, farmers have embraced more
use of machinery and fertilizers.
Labu says Nile Breweries bought two tractors for
the farmers and they hired another seven
combine harvesters from Kenya.
"This means we have limited post-harvest
losses," Labu says, in relation to increased
mechanisation at farm level, in processing and
transportation.
A kilogramme of barley today sells at Shs 1,100,
an increase of Shs 200 from last year. Boniface
Muneria, 61, ploughed 22 acres in Bukwo this
year and harvested 240 bags of barley. He has
earned Shs 26m from selling his produce,
compared to Shs 11m he earned from eight acres
last year.
"Nile Breweries helped me hire three combine
harvesters and I was wise to harvest before the
rains started. This helped me improve my yields
significantly thus boosting my income," says
Muneria, who started growing barley in 2011. "I
planted on time, administered inputs on time and
harvested on time. This explains the bumper
harvest."
He says he started with seven acres because he
was not sure of the market. He harvested 50
bags, using mostly rudimentary methods.
"My entire household would go to the fields with
hoes, sickles and willows. We did not know
about tractors and combined harvesters,"
Muneria says.
Farmers in Bukwo have, until recently, been
involved in smallholder farming thus limiting
adoption to modern means of farming.
Due to the increase in the farming acreage, the
famers have now adopted mechanized farming -
growing maize, wheat and barley as their main
cash crops. Farmers say they have opted for
barley growing because of the ready market and
stable prices.