By Patrick Okino
Crushed egg shells are majorly taken as part of garbage in trading centres and urban areas but a section of roadside chapati dealers in Lira City are minting money out of it by selling to manufacture organic fertilizer.
According to Jasper Awira, a resident of Lira City, he earns from both sales of boiled eggs and also from the crushed shells. He sells a kilogram at sh300 to Fidena Agri Uganda, agri-business Company based at Odokomit, Lira City.
He said he earns his livelihood from the supply of the raw materials by giving a minimum of 50 kilogram and walking away with sh15,000.
“It is a very good business because many casual laborers are not aware of market and the demand,” Awira said.
Jimmy Opio, another supplier said, he collects 10 kilograms of the raw materials after three days but he is not so regular like some of his colleagues.
“I collect, stored and sell it twice a week unlike some my friends who pick every day,” he said.
According to the managing director, Denis Ogwang besides, he has employed four boys and gave them bicycles to ensure they collect the raw material daily to keep the machines busy.
“In a month we realized between 800-1,000 kilograms depending on the collection and its availability in the communities,” he said, adding some crushed shells are picked from the rubbish pits.
He added that they have also opted to include banana peel in manufacturing this fertilizer known as, eggo organic fertilizer.
He said they are opting to procure a processing machine which can produce 40,000 liters of the liquid fertilizers monthly from 1000 currently in order to serve the available market better.
The process includes collection of raw materials, sorting and cleaning, crushing, pre-fermentation, boiling, ingredient mixing and fermentation, processing into liquid then packaging and battling according to Ogwang.
He added that the fertilizer increases crops yield by 185% and had been recommended for use by the Uganda National Bureau of Standards and the National Agricultural Research Organization.
“We started in 2020 and we are now getting orders and positive feedback from our farmers based on how their yield has increased and a number of them are satisfied with the results,” Ogwang said.
Emmanuel Ogwang, one of the farmers at Barwac village, said he has done farming using the fertilizer and has registered positive results.
He said when he picked interest and started using, I began seeing his plants growing and producing well even during bad seasons.
