Page 157 - AFAP Success Stories 2020

This is a turning point in the life cycle of my
farming career. I had never thought I could raise
8,750,000 (USD 2,430) as profit from farming, more so
in just a quarter acre of a tomato plot. I plan to do an
acre next season. Joyce Nabukeera

Nabukeera has become an opinion leader among
her fellow smallholder vegetable growers. She noted
that the frequency of sprays also reduced as her
crops became more tolerant to diseases than she had
experienced before. She was also happy with the early
maturity exhibited by the crop.

It was interesting to note the color, weight and Brix
of her tomatoes, which were uniformly colored, felt
heavy and were sweetish in taste.
Mukono District authorities from the production office deliberating during the
James Ssemusu is another beneficiary of the program. field day: Kiwanuka Noah (head of production)
He grows maize and tomatoes. Unlike Nabukeera,
Ssemusu used to use fertilisers but only urea. He
hardly noticed any advantages from using it. This time
round he is very happy as he applied the principles of
appropriate fertilizer using DAP.

As a result, Ssemusu’s maize exhibited early maturity,
which reduced the number of sprays required to
protect the plants from the fall armyworm, which
attacks maize during its early growth stages. After
two sprays, the maize was already too hard for the
armyworm. Ssemusu has been able to harvest 32 bags
(4MT) of the Longe 8H variety compared to the control
plot, which yielded only five bags from an acre.

Cobs are fuller with hardly any aborted ova. Ssemusu
is now helping other farmers to improve their use of
fertilizers.

Mabira Mukasa (district agricultural officer).
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