Organic farming is closer to nature 

Athanasius Buliggwanga, a farmer at Bbulamazzi Village near Kalisizo Town in Kyotera District says one of the main factors leading to food insecurity in Uganda is the on-going mindless destruction of bio-diversity by mindless usage of agricultural machines and chemicals. 

“When a farmer sprays a pesticide or a herbicide in a field often the chemicals kill off some very useful herbs, vegetables and medicinal plants,” he says.

“The pesticides are manufactured to kill harmful insects that destroy crops either by eating them or spreading plant diseases. However, the same pests kill useful organisms such as ants and bees, which are pollinators,”” says Buliggwanga. 

Why organic farming 
Buliggwanga does not spend any money on pesticides and herbicides. His reasons are clear. Most of the traditional vegetables and many other food crops in Buganda normally grow together with the weeds and such vegetables include nsugga, jjobyo, dodo, and mbooga.

They are known to be a rich source of vitamins, minerals, and fibre. Some of them are also medicinal and many of them, such as mushrooms, are used in the performance of a number of traditional rituals.

“Now since they are not commonly separately farmed but they grow organically together with the weeds I would rather personally remove the weeds using hand tools other than just blindly spray the chemicals over them and kill them together with the weeds,” he says.

Buliggwanga has a separate and well-tended garden on his farm where he grows such crops as cabbages, sukuma-wiki, salads, and carrots, among others --- which are not regarded as indigenous crops in Uganda. In the garden he uses a hand hoe to remove the weeds. 

Best practices 
He also uses livestock manure to keep the garden fertile. Why does he not also have a separate garden for the indigenous vegetables --- dodo, jjobyo, nsugga, mbooga, and the others?

His reasons for not growing traditional vegetables in gardens are not different from those of another farmer in Lwengo District, John Ssentongo, of Lukindu Village near Kiwangala Trading Centre who told Seeds of Gold in a separate interview, “I cannot get their seeds because they are not commonly available in farmers’ shops. To grow them I will try to get their seeds myself and to take all the trouble to see how I can plant them and carry out all the suitable agronomical activities. But since they are not normally available in our food markets I even wonder if there will be enough people to buy them.”

Agriculturalists describe organic farming as a holistic management system which aims to avoid the use of synthetic and harmful pesticides, herbicides, fertilisers, growth regulators and livestock feed additives to reach a long term goal of sustainable production of crops and animals.  

Sustaining soil fertility 
Prof Julius Zaake, who heads the soil science department at Makerere University Kampala recently told Seeds of Gold that the best way to sustain soil fertility is to return what comes from the soil to the soil.

For example when a bunch of bananas is harvested in Masaka or Bushenyi and it is loaded on the truck and taken to Kampala or Entebbe for sale to the urban dwellers it goes with all the soil nutrients that it absorbed from the soil in Masaka or Bushenyi.

The banana peelings should ideally be returned to the area and the spot where it was harvested. The banana leaves also should not leave the banana plantation to be used elsewhere. Ideally they should be used as mulch in the banana plantation for the fertility of the soil to thrive.

John Ssentongo argues that the best organic farmers are both crop and livestock farmers. “When a farmer with two or three acres keeps a cow or two and probably some goats, such a farmer will have a steady supply of livestock dung  to use as manure on his or her farm,” he says. “Such farmers may grow rows of fodder grass along gully lines and as fence material around their gardens. They may also feed their animals on crop residues like banana peelings or maize and bean residues.”

Compost manure 
Both Buliggwanga and Ssentongo grow crops and keep livestock and they make compost manure. They have pits into which they put weeds and livestock droppings. After some months the materials rot and form what the farmers use as compost manure.

Ssentongo goes ahead to make organic pesticides concoctions which he applies on crops to prevent multiplication of pests. He uses different local plant leaves dropped in clean water in metal drums and left there for some days.

If he is such a successful producer of cabbages and other vegetables it must be true that his organic pesticide concoctions are effective. The so-called organic pesticides are widely used by organic farmers in Uganda.

Some people however question the safety of such concoctions which are liberally applied on edible crops ---without any reference to dosage or known application rates.

Dr Andrew Kiggundu, Chairman of Uganda Biotechnology and Bio-safety Consortium (UBBC) and Senior Researcher in National Agricultural Research Organisation (Naro) warns that some expert y safety analysis of such concoctions ought to be made before they are applied on crops grown for human consumption.

Kiggundu further says, “One of the best steps to promote organic farming would be to grow genetically modified crops bred to be resistant to pests and diseases. If crops are resistant to pests, there is no need for farmers to use pesticides.”

He has a point! One of the reasons cotton farmers in Uganda find it difficult to raise good profits is the big expenditure on pesticides fighting the boll worm. Irish potato farmers face higher production costs due to big expenditure on pesticides. Too much pesticide use on edible crops such as Irish potato, maize, and tomatoes is a big health risk.”

It is also true that rampant usage of pesticides has killed off many insect species that used to biologically reduce the population of some crop disease spreading insects. Today we have pests such as the coffee twig borer whose populations were perhaps being controlled by now extinct insects that fed on them.