There is money in dairy farming and this offers a huge opportunity for home-based women and youth.
This was the key message passed on during a one-day training, organised by Dr Jolly Kabirizi, a retired researcher and one of Vision Group’s best farmers.
She organised the dairy farmers’ training in honour of Women’s Day. The training was attended by 158 farmers, mostly women and youth. This was the 11th such training.
She has held the training for the last 10 years to mark Women’s Day. The training, with the theme Empowering Farmers and Youth with Climate Smart Dairy Cattle Farming,” was held on March 22, at Seguku Worship Centre, Yesu Akwagala.
The training was supported by URUS, Holland Greentech- a Netherlands horticulture group, The International Potato Centre, Heifer International, Pride Microfinance and the National Agriculture Research Organisation (NARO).
“I have organised this training every year for the last 10 years. I have held it in various other places including Northern and Western Uganda in honour of women. I know that if women dairy farmers are empowered, they can improve the financial status of their families,” she says. Kabirizi is also a regular trainer at the Harvest Money expo.
Kabirizi explained that for generations, the dairy sector in Uganda has been contributing to the empowerment of women both from nutrition and livelihood perspectives.
Kabirizi explained that she chose to train dairy farmers in honour of Women’s Day because increasing participation of women in dairy farming enhances their chances of engaging in public decision-making, thereby improving their social and economic status. Income from dairy farming directly supports household livelihoods and elevates the quality of life for these women. Furthermore, greater involvement in dairy farming allows women to contribute ideas, make decisions to improve their families’ and communities’ well-being, and assume leadership roles.
Beyond just keeping a cow, Kabirizi showed participants other ways of earning from the dairy value chain, including processing market waste into feeds for sale.
Seek knowledge
Phoebe Kalega, a dairy farmer from Masindi informed participants that when she started her farm with passion fruits, she did not have much information on agriculture, but at that time there was a lot of talk about agriculture making “crazy money”.
The most talked about venture was passion fruits, though she did not find a successful farmer for about 2 years. They had all resorted to selling seedlings but didn’t have orchards.
She did more research until she found in New Vision archives online, one Ronald Wasswa from Buvuma island in Mukono, who explained passion fruit farming to my satisfaction.
The following day she travelled with Wasswa to the islands. She was amazed at his passion fruit field.
Phoebe was determined to start, she ordered for seedlings and applied for annual leave to establish an orchard.
Eventually, Kalega said that they started a family business in cattle keeping, also without any prior knowledge. It was almost a disaster!
“So we decided to attend trainings like the Harvest Money Expo and visit other farmers for knowledge,” she says.
They have moved on to expand and practice recommended agronomic practices to improve yield.
She co-manages “War room women (935 women)” and started ‘Bethel Farms and Kuniira women (200+ women in Masindi).
Get good breeds
Dr William Kabanda from URUS implored farmers to always use good semen for good breeds.
They trained farmers on the different cattle breeds and how to breed for high productivity through the right selection of sires/heifers and the different factors to consider.
They expounded on the different aspects of production like calf and cow nutrition and management and the roles they play in production.
“It is the breed you select that determines how your milk or beef production will come out,” Kabanda said.
Other trainers included Martha Matovu Namabiro, a 2024 Best farmer under DAFAN and proprietor of MADCO, and Peter Mpoza a 13-year-old student from Kitende Secondary School, who talked about his farming journey.
