Coffee growing opened doors for Mukono farmer

He grows coffee and bananas and rears pigs and cows. He is the typical Ugandan farmer, who looks at farming as more than just an activity to earn money, it is a way of life.

In one harvest, I get between 50 and 70 bags coffee. Each bag has about 70kg and each kilogramme is sold at Shs2,000. There are two harvests in a year.

On average, I get about Shs1m per month throughout the year. That is why I made up my mind never to go back into office to work for someone moreover on pressure. Salary is not worth my energy. It is agriculture which my parents taught me that has made me successful.

I do not buy food because the bananas I have, are enough to feed my family. If I want to change the diet, I just sell off a few bunches of bananas and buy the food I want but which I do not grow myself.

Rearing pigs
Along with coffee, I rear pigs too. These are another quick way of getting money if one wants to get it quick through farming. Because coffee is usually stored and only sold during time of need, I decided to venture into pigs too.

I got the idea from Naads programme where we were taught how to rear pigs and get profits from them. We formed a group of 11 people and we were given two piglets, a male and female.

With time they grew, produced and multiplied, then they were distributed to every member of the group until we all got piglets.

When mine produced, I started selling them and I realised that I had not been wise enough to take on the project earlier. With pigs, only six months are enough for them to mature.

Mine are Large White, which grow quickly. Right now, pigs are on demand because people in the city who work in offices enjoy eating pork after work.

I prefer selling them when they are still young, usually at about four months, because keeping them can bring losses especially when attacked by swine flu. In addition, when they are growing, you may spend a lot of money looking after them and when you reach to sell them, you make losses. That is why I sell them when they are still young.

Cattle and milk
Another caution is, never allow a female pig to go beyond four births. After giving birth for the fourth time, sell it off because it will be old and it is usually bought cheaply.

Apart from the coffee, bananas and pigs, I also keep cattle. This is purely for milk production. I keep my coffee for the emergency needs like school fees, pigs for seasonal income, bananas for home consumption but milk is the one that sustains my daily income.

The cows give me an average of 40 litres of milk daily. I set aside about two litres for domestic consumption and the rest is sold. Each litre is at Shs1,000.

Success and challenges
Through all these ventures, I have managed to sustain my family, educated my children up to university and built three houses; for myself and rentals.

Like it is in any business, much as I have registered success through farming, there are challenges I have faced along the way. The biggest challenge I face is that of thieves. My coffee is usually stolen from the garden.

Apart from that, there are also pests and yet there are no pesticides for them. Coffee plants are also attacked by disease that just dries up the entire plant. Up to now, I have tried looking for a solution to it but I have not been successful in all places I have gone to seek for help.