By Herbert Musoke and Joshua Kato
Vegetable markets
Understanding the agronomy of the crop you want to grow is an important aspect of farming as a business, however, learning about its market, is even more important.
Male says there will be a market overview that will give participants a brief on marking; how to get to the market, where is the market, what the market wants and managing the market, among others.
“You need to think of your market first such that whatever you do is aimed at meeting the demands of the market you intend to sell to in terms of size, shape, colour, uniformity and consistency, among others. The first mistake is growing before having or knowing what the market wants,” he says.
Understanding one’s market will help you in enterprise selection and management planning in terms of planting sequences, the system where you choose to go open field or greenhouse.
“We are going to be a team of five trainers taking you through the A-Z of vegetable farming from enterprise selection, acquisition of quality seed, managing a nursery bed and soil management, crop production and management, irrigation and greenhouse farming and its economic,” he said.
Joshua Kato, the Harvest Money editor for New Vision, said Vision Group has continued organising the master classes to bridge the knowledge gap between the experts who have understood the best agronomic practices and the farmers who want such information to improve productivity on their farms.
“This is not the last one this year; we shall have more sessions before the year ends,” he said.
Nursery, soil management
Male says it is important to understand the best soil management practices.
This include managing soil-borne diseases and fertility which greatly affect the production and productivity of the crops to be grown.
“The team is going to be led by Deborah Namande. We need to know our soils because they are the greatest factor of production. Also, the team will take participants through nursery bed management since it is where the live of a crop starts,” he says.
The master class is organised by Vision Group in partnership with the Netherlands embassy. It will take place tomorrow at AVAIL Fruits of Faith farm at Magere in Wakiso district, starting from 9:00am – 3:00pm.
Direction
To reach the farm if you are coming from Kampala, drive up to Luteete on Gayaza road and turn to your right towards Magere village. Follow the sign posts until you reach the farm. It is just about 1km from Luteete, as shown on the map besides. Or contact: 0708092355 or 0789353585 for more inquiries
