By Vision Reporter
Rachel Naigaga Kibwiika, from Emerge Intergrated Farm in Luweero, has been named the best farmer in Uganda, at the 2024 Best Farmers’ Awards event at vision Group head offices.
In 2015, she decided to start rearing kuroiler chicken in Zirobwe town, Luwero district where the family had 10 acres of land.
“My husband and co-director, Prof. Paul Kibwika, sponsored the fencing of two acres of land with chain link where the kuroliers would be reared in a semi free range system,” she says.
To their dismay, the next morning, the couple found the poles intact, but the chain link had been stolen, she says. In addition, they found tree seedlings that had been uprooted from their land planted by their neighbor.
This, however, did not stop them from pursuing their farming dream. The couple moved to Gambirana village, Kikyusa sub-county in Luwero district. They had bought 150 acres on which they set up Emerge Integrated Farm Ltd. They grow passion fruits, mangoes and coffee. The farm also has cows, goats and poultry coupled with owning Rapak foods and Beverages Ltd to add value to their fruits.
Prof. Kibwika, a lecturer at Makerere University department of agriculture, says they have 10,000-layer chicken, 1,000 broilers, 48 cows, 150 crossbreeds of Boer goats, over five acres of coffee and over 20 acres of maize. Other enterprises include three acres of passion fruits, five acres of mangoes, four acres of bananas that are intercropped with macadamia and cashew nut trees.
According to the judges, the Kibwiika`s emerged overall winners because of the many innovations that they have on the farm. “The farm adds value to their products and although they have many enterprises, each of them is equally productive and very clean,” the judges ruled.
This is the ninth year running that Vision Group, together with the Embassy of the Netherlands, KLM Airlines, dfcu Bank and Koudijs Animal Nutrition, are running the Best Farmers competition. The 2024 competition run from March to November, culminating in today’s awards ceremony.
LEAD PHOTO CAPTION: Rachel Naigaga Kibwiika posing for a photo with Frank Tumwebaze, the agriculture Minister during the 2024 Best Farmers Awards. Photos by Mpalanyi Ssentongo
