By Umar Nsubuga
Ronald Kyozira of Bulunguli village in Buyanga sub-county Bugweri district has grown soya for the last 15 years.
He says choosing this bean as your major crop is a wise decision.
“Soya fits well in several farming systems in Uganda,” he says.
Soya bean is a very good variety and he encourages farmers to grow it and also use natural fertilisers.
According to National Agriculture Advisory Services (NAADS), soya has been proven that it does well on soils where maize was previously cultivated.
However, inter-cropping soya with maize will definitely lead to a reduction in harvests. There are several soya varieties in Uganda, they include the NAM and the NG7 series.
All of them require fertile loam soils and a fine seed bed to yield well.
According to Kyozira, planting should be done at a depth of 2-5cm when there is sufficient moisture in the soil depending on soil texture.
Phosphorous is essential for good soybean yields. Use 200kg of superphosphate per hectare before planting.
He says on poor soils, 50kg of NPK may be applied.
“The optimum spacing is 60cmx5cms giving a population of around 330,000 plants per hectare”, he advises.
50-60kg of harvested seeds per hectare are required.
The crop is ready if pods produce a ratting sound. Harvesting should be done in dry conditions to maintain good seed quality.
You should expect to harvest at least 2.6 tonnes per hectare if all goes well.
“In an acre, you plant 20kgs and harvest 800kgs if well looked after. This translates to about sh1.2m and after investing in sh600,000. When you grow soya beans, you sell each kilo at sh1,500 to sh2,000,” he adds.
Planting
According to Kyozira, if you plant soya beans on a large scale it’s important to plough the land and leave it to rot for 3 – 4 weeks before planting.
He says Namsoy4 and Maksoy3N are very good seed type because they are drought-tolerant and high yielding.
Kyozira says during planting, you can leave a space of 50cm by 50cm. If the spacing is 50cm by 25cm then two seeds have to be dropped in each hole, and soya beans will need a weeding period of two weeks.
Fertilisers
If you are to benefit from soya beans it is important to apply fertilisers containing phosphorous and potassium, you can apply them during planting.
