Dr Nambatya uses small space for returns

Dr Nambatya wears a smile as she displays her rich harvest. PHOTO/SHABIBAH NAKIRIGYA

Shabibah Nakirigya 
The midday sun shines brightly overhead as we pull up to a black gate in Tuba Zone, Kulambiro, a Kampala suburb.

“Abagenyi ba doctor, (the doctors visitors),” we hear one of the neighbours saying as we enter into a small but lush compound. 

Kitchen farming 
We are welcomed by several potted plants, tomatoes planted in old car tyres and hanging alongside the walls. A variety of other plants are also dotted about the small green grounds. “Those are my children’s onions and tomatoes,” Dr Diana Nambatya told us. 

Innovation 
Dr Nambatya is well known in the neighbourhood for her innovative ways of using limited space to practice farming. On the half acre that surrounds her house, nearly every vegetable is grown, in addition to rearing three dairy cows under the zero grazing method.
Nor is she selfish with her gift for innovation. Dr Nambatya is also teaching her neighbours about the rewards of smart farming in an urban setting. 

Turns a gift into zero grazing 
She tells us the cows were originally given to them as a wedding gift by their parents-in-law 10 years ago. She uses the cow dung as the basic ingredient for producing biogas. 

This energetic farmer is a trained doctor and public health professional. Several years ago, she decided to farm her compound rather than beautify it like most of the neighbours. It is a decision she has never regretted. She now manages a well-kept vegetable garden and a neat cow shelter.

Dr Nambatya is a cattle keeper with a difference because while others cherish their cows for the milk and beef they produce, she is more interested in the cow dung. 

From this waste, she has managed to come up with several useful products. One of them is organic fertiliser of which she exports up to 100 jerricans to Rwanda every month.

Her journey
The public health professional says the farm started in 2010. She says, “We were a young family trying to make ends meet. We started Kwagala Farm to grow tomatoes and onions to cut on costs. We started the farm with just Shs1,000. I went to the Container Village and landed on the Africa One shop and I asked them for tomato seeds.”

In time, they started getting surpluses which were sold to work mates, friends and neighbours.  “One of my first customers was Mr Smith who wanted to eat organic tomatoes and he used to buy between 10 and 15 kilogrammes at $100 (Shs360,000).  

From then on, they started buying from me and connected me to other customers who in turn connected me to other customers,” she said. 

“We eventually registered Kwagala Farm in September 2011 and things started opening up. In 2012 my parents–in-law gave us a cow and we invested and built up a biogas plant. And with time we stopped buying gas and started using our own,” Dr Nambatya says. 

Turning point 
One day, consultants from the World Bank Group visited their home to see how it was all done. They were so impressed they gave a grant of $1,000. “This was a huge boost for us. We decided to invest more in our biogas and I travelled widely to learn more,” she said. 

Kwagala Farm has received many awards due to the innovations that have earned the doctor and her husband much praise. They were also given machinery for their fertiliser business but this needed them to construct a more solid structure.