By Jackie Nalubwama
The Harvest Money Expo, hosted by Vision Group at Nambole Stadium today, is bustling with activity. The warm sun cannot dissuade eager expo-goers, who trickle in with excitement and determination to absorb all manner of agricultural knowledge.
The three-day event will end on Sunday, and each day has different experts holding workshops, in which they share their stories and tips. Bashir Mayiga, for example, is an expert in growing passion fruit who had a training session on how to grow passion fruit. He stressed several points to an attentive full room about how to grow the fruit successfully.
“I urge you to visit experts’ farms before you start farming. Make it a practice to visit farms and learn,” he said.
He reasoned that learning from others’ experiences before starting a project reduces mistakes. Mayiga also said that land is integral to any farming venture and asked the audience to get it first, regardless of whether it is hired or bought.
“You need to give your farm time. You get the knowledge and training, but thereafter, you hire a labourer and return to your usual job. Yet the labourer did not get training and does not know how to tend passion fruits,” he said.
Mayiga said ironically the jobs people return to do not earn them as much as passion fruit would. And to prove his point, he said,
“A sack of passion fruit is either 80 kgs in the dry season or 90 kgs in the wet season. Each kilogram costs sh8000, which means from one bag, you can earn sh640,000 per week. In one acre of passion fruit, you can have four bags of passion fruit per week, which means you can earn sh2.56m per week.” He posed a question:
“So, where would you put the emphasis—on your project or your job?” Mayiga advised his listeners to ensure that their workers also received training to have a successful harvest.
