When people say that there are no jobs in Uganda, Stanley Kanyonyo just laughs at them because they don’t know that jobs are already on their finger-tips.
Konyonyo of Kirundu Cell, Rwamugoma parish in Ruhinda sub-county, Rukungiri district is a retired accountant. He used to work at Kyambogo University as a senior accounts assistant at the time of his retirement in 2012.
Konyonyo now lives at his upcountry home with his wife Merinah Konyonyo and workers who help him in his garden and grazing of his cattle.
At the time the Harvest Money team visited him, Konyonyo together with one of his helper was milking cows at around 3:30pm.
He says during the evening, the milk he gets is consumed locally at home and he only sells what he collects in the morning in Rukungiri town.
Besides cattle rearing, Konyonyo is a leading apple grower in Ruhinda sub-county and says it pays him far better than what the government used to pay him.
“The money which is in agriculture is far better than what the government gives graduates. I regret why I did not join this sector a long time ago. I would be the richest person in this area,” he says.
Konyonyo started the apple growing project in 2016 after district NAADS Secretariat gave him seedlings.
“I planted 540 trees in one-and-a-half acres of land and I started harvesting in just four years,” he says.
Konyonyo says apple needs serious attention like any other project if you want to get good results. I used manure to plant them and I started harvesting at only four years old.
He says he has market for fruits within and outside Rukungiri and each fruit is sold at sh700. In a good season, one plant can produce 300 fruits which comes to sh210,000 from a tree per season. There are two seasons in a year which is good money.
“If the season is not very good, I get about sh110m and over sh220m per year which you cannot get from government jobs and I hope to increase the income when more fruits grow,” he says. Konyonyo adds that apples increase e as trees keep growing in the environment that suit it well.
