By Moses Nampala
Aaron Siu, a resident of Bunamwaro village in Busoba sub-county, Mbale district, grows paddy rice, groundnuts and Arabica coffee.
He tips farmers on how to prepare a rice nursery.
The portion of land earmarked for the nursery bed should not to be marshy.
A farmer should mix the soil with organic material at a ratio of 1:2 basins (a basin of organic manure mixed with two basins sandy clay soil).
The seed is soaked in water for 24 hours to ensure it germinates quickly, Siu explains.
The following day, a farmer plants the seed by sprinkling/ broadcasting it in the nursery bed. The seeds usually germinate after two days.
A farmer must apply NPK fertiliser a week before transplanting.
“The application is by sprinkling the fertiliser around the planting holes,” he observes.
The seedlings are transplanted when they are three weeks old. Siu plants three seedlings per hole. Weeding is done twice. That is, after two weeks and when the crop is a month old.
The crops are sprayed with pesticides thrice — four weeks, at three months and when it is fruiting. About 20 millilitres of pesticide is mixed with 20 litres of water and is enough for spraying an acre.
Each bottle of pesticide costs sh20,000. When the crop starts fruiting after 45 days, it attracts birds, which a farmer must chase away to prevent losses.
Sui shares a wetland with 10 other rice farmers with whom he has drawn up a schedule to chase the birds away in turns.
