She learnt farming skills from fellow women

Visiting fellow female farmers and learning from them has been the basis of Ms Fausta Kamugisha Kituufu’s success in farming. She and her husband, Eden Kamugisha Kituufu, live in Kisagazi Village, Mukungwe Sub-county, Masaka District.

She is today the Uganda Coffee Development Authority (UCDA) appointed Robusta Coffee Nursery Operator in the area and she also prepares grafted plantlets of oranges, lemon, avocado, passion fruit, and mango, which she sells to Operation Wealth Creation (OWC), anti-poverty NGOs, and individual farmers from far and near.

She also prepares cloned eucalyptus trees and a variety of ornamental plants for sale.

Starting
“At first my husband and I owned a guest house, ADEFA, along Edward Avenue in Masaka Town where I worked mainly supervising the restaurant section. However in 2012 we had to sell it and that is when I began thinking of taking up farming as my next occupation. But I was not quite sure which farming activity would work for me. In fact I don’t have any formal training in agriculture,” she says, adding “However, by good luck I discussed the issue with a friend, Mrs Lutaaya, who told me about grafting and cloning of fruit trees, ornamental trees, and shrubs as a well-paying business.”

Ms Lutaaya was willing to offer agronomy knowledge. “She used to do the business herself and she offered to teach me how to do the grafting and cloning. I had to spend some days at her workplace, driving there every day to undergo some training.
“However, my immediate worry was whether I would easily sell off the seedlings since I meant to do the business in our own home which is some kilometres from Masaka Town. She assured me that I would get the customers and I have long since found her assurance so prophetic. Customers have been making the long journey to our home and buying my products.”

Diversification
Kituufu has not only been making plantlets for sale but she has also planted a lot of oranges, mango trees, avocado, and some eight or so acres of Robusta coffee on her family piece of land.

“I quickly realised the importance of diversification and one day I bought a pig which I carefully looked after. It gave birth to 10 piglets which I sold and used the money to buy a Friesian cow. Even my husband who is always supportive was surprised how I quickly I earned the money to buy the cow. I then took care of the cow under zero-grazing and I was able to earn some money selling milk every day.”

Her husband, Mr Eden Kamugisha Kituufu, is a successful poultry farmer and businessman. She employs about 10 people in her farming activities, mostly potting clones and grafting plantlets and doing other activities in the pig sty and coffee plantation. She has a mother garden for eucalyptus trees (South Africa variety) and a mother garden for KR (Kituza Research) Robusta coffee. When Seeds of Gold visited her home she had an estimated 60,000 KR Robusta coffee plantlets ready for planting.

She said each plantlet costs Shs2,500. She has a lot of hope that OWC and individual farmers will be buying them in the next rain season. She said KR Robusta coffee is resistant to the deadly Coffee Wilt Disease (CWD) which has wiped out entire gardens across the country and greatly impeded national coffee production.
She had perhaps as many cloned eucalyptus plantlets each one of which costs Shs700. She had some potted ornamental tree plantlets, each one of which costs Shs3,000. She took Seeds of Gold to her pigsty of some 120 pigs, located a few minutes’ walk into her coffee garden. She feeds them on maize bran and grass and she uses their droppings as manure for her coffee plantation.

“We also apply chicken droppings as manure all over our entire farm and for growing all the crops,” she told Seeds of Gold.

Why mixed farming?
All the coffee trees stood strong and vigorous, heavily laden with green coffee berries. The pruning and weed control was quite impressive. “Yes, the coffee is high yielding,” she pointed out, “but I am yet to be satisfied with the profit from the crop. It is a crop for the patient and it is prudent to grow it along other crops and other farming enterprises. I advise all the women who have some land to grow coffee along other farming activities.”

It is the reason she is into seedlings preparation, piggery, cattle zero grazing, as well as growing eucalyptus and fruit trees. A eucalyptus trees farmer herself, she now has timber stalls in Masaka, which is another source of income for her. “The poles are well numbered and the selling price for each one of them is set. So it is quite easy to monitor and to audit that business.”

Why farming
As the wife of a supportive and successful businessman one would wonder why she went out to become such a hard working farmer.
But the mother of three gives a strong reason for her decision. “It is wrong for any married woman to just depend on the husband for all her needs even when there is an opportunity for her to make a contribution,” she said. “I have been blessed with good health which enables me to engage in all forms of physical work. As a result of hard work I have earned enough money to build a modern house for my parents and to support some of my relatives to get education by paying their school fees.”