I am a Youth aged 19 and a student at St Thomas primary school. I am particularly known for Irish potatoes farming and a member of Kasunga Youth Association in Kihamba Parish Kyegegwa District. I have been in this business for three years, initially having minimal harvest income. My earning at the time stagnated at about 150,000 per season due to small production and hence the returns couldn’t be enough to support me to study. However, the business began to change for better in the last 3 years.
I now harvest between 3 to 4 sacks of Irish potatoes per season , Consume one sack with my siblings and sale 3 sacks at a range of 150,000 – 180,000 Uganda shillings, giving me a three months income of 450,000 – 540,000 Uganda Shillings.
I have invested the income from Irish potatoes farming in my education since I am educating myself. I am currently saving with Kasunga Youth Group which was very hard for me to save before improving on my agriculture productivity. I hope to continue with my education to secondary and tertiary level and attain my degree.
I attribute this success to adoption of Irish potatoes agronomic practices, a journey I started 3 years ago introduced to me by FORUD Uganda through collective farm learning and exchange visits amongst members of Kasunga Youth Association. Joining the Youth farmers Group helped me minimize labour costs on my plantation and access to good varieties like kabale Irish potatoes seeds that is highly demanded in Kampala and urban centers for deep frying chips.
I am proud of this success because my life has greatly improved since I started appreciating the value of improved farming practices and I encourage the youth to join farmers youth Groups and start participating in productive agriculture to cutoff time for redundancy because its actions that can change the situation.
Name of the story Teller: Nyakahuma Daniel.
Sub-county & District: Kyegegwa.
Date: 15th May 2023.
Name of the person recording a story: Amos Bacwa
Change Domain: Livelihood.
When it happened: 2023