Author: Edson Kansime

As Uganda experiences a rise in population, there is a need to feed the growing population so as to propel implementation of Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) two which aims to end hunger, achieve food security and improve nutrition and promote sustainable agriculture. A rise in population is associated with increased pressure on land, forest degradation, and land fragmentation-making families overcultivate their plots to maximise crop yield. In my interaction with Barack Mugenyi, a poultry, vegetable farmer and a victim of land fragmentation who owns a plot of land (30×50 feet) reveals a secret of reaping gold from farming black soldier flies. Black soldier fly (BSF) being a source of protein, it…

Maize farmers are increasingly concerned about pests attacking their fields at various growth stages. Climate change has led to mutations among these pests, enhancing their survival rates and increasing resistance to available pesticides. In a recent conversation with Oyeti Joshou, a maize farmer in Kikuube district, Western Uganda, he shared that for the past decade, farmers have struggled to identify the right pesticide for each growth stage. This uncertainty raises production costs and results in losses as they experiment with different treatments. Joshou faces a range of pests, including cutworms, maize stem borers, armyworms, aphids, birds, and monkeys, all of…

Today in Uganda, most farmers have adopted maize farming in that they need maximum profits from production, but to attain this a farmer should have maximum output possible of high quality from harvest. Due to climatic changes and farmer negligence most, farmers have failed to maximise maize output of better grades from production. There are many challenges alongside maize production which has hindered farmers from attaining maximum output possible as expected and they condemn themselves for their negligence on post-harvest handling. This has attributed a lot to less kilogrammes sold and of poor quality every year, since grain is lost…