Miss Uganda contestants learn farming skills

The Miss Uganda contestants in a maize garden. PHOTOS BY EMMY OMONGIN.

What you need to know:

Away from the usual glitz and glamour, the annual beauty pageant included time on the farm.

“At home, we have one cow; I didn’t know how to milk it. I would just wait for the milk,” says Claudet Kesiime. “After this training, I know how to milk a cow and it has been my most exciting experience here.”

With what she has learnt, Kesiime plans to start an apple orchard in Kabale, her home district. “With free trade that the East African Community has to offer, I am not worried of taxes since I want to export my apples. By the look of things, it is lucrative,” she says. Kesiime, 21, is a contestant in the 2014 Miss Uganda competition. One of the 20 who were at Bukalasa Agricultural College for a basic skills training.

Different from others
The pageant took a new twist. It will be held under the theme “Promoting agriculture entrepreneurship among the youth.” It is intended to ride on the importance of agriculture to Uganda’s economy.

The concept of incorporating agriculture in the competition is of interest to those who are inquisitive on how the two blend. The subjects the contestants were taught included post-harvest handling, mushroom growing, juice processing, pig rearing and dairy farming. “We are championing beauty with a purpose. All these girls will be equipped with practical agricultural skills, which they will use to start up businesses for themselves,” says Brenda Nanyonjo, chief executive officer, Miss Uganda.

The girls will be judged according to their creativity in various agricultural projects and their execution on these projects that they will present at the grand finale. Points will be awarded according to how they carried out activities at the farm and their overall understanding of the concepts taught at the boot camp held at the farm.

Emmanuel Adengu, academic registrar, Bukalasa Agricultural College, says the girls were receptive to what they were taught. “Some have even vowed to continue practising what they have been taught about the farming enterprises even if they do not win the pageant,” he says.

Yasmin Taban, 19, a contestant from Kampala, has an idea on how to promote agriculture.
“I hope to promote agricultural clubs in secondary schools so that when students are done with high school, they can start up something for themselves instead of moving around streets looking for jobs during their vocation.”

Brenda Iriama, 22, from Karamoja, says she has got an interest in piggery, which she never would have considered before. She feels it will earn her a lot of money and it is not as difficult to start as she had anticipated.

What they learnt
The activities the beauty queens participated in include the following:

Mushrooms: They were taught the requirements for growing mushrooms and what they would need to use such as polythene bags, ash wood and the medium of growing mushrooms.
They were also taught the type of seeds to use and where to get the best quality seeds.

Poultry: They were taken to the farm and were introduced to different activities on a poultry farm like feeding, vaccination, and maintaining cleanliness on a poultry farm.

Dairy farming: Contestants participated in activities that involved how to prepare before milking.
They were also instructed on how to feed the cows and proper storage of milk after the milking process.

Fish farming: The girls were taught how to care for fish, feed them and what is required to establish a fish pond.

Post-harvest handling and storage: For this, they were shown how to deal with the challenges and losses when it comes to the harvest and post-harvest stages.

Soil sampling: They were taken to the laboratory and given test tubes with different soil samples and taught how to test for the PH, differentiate betweeb soils, the capillarity and texture.

Piggery: The girls were taught how to keep the piggery clean and neat so the activities involved washing the pigs and clearing out the pig stys.

The finale of the contest will take place on Saturday, October 25 at Speke Resort, Munyonyo.