NEBBI: Unlocking the business mind in farming
Ms. Adokorach Furwasuazi is a 25-year-old woman with a family of 4 members. She lives in Jupalai Village, Kituna Parish, Akworo Sub County, Nebbi district. Her story of change shows how onion production and collective marketing gradually moved her toward achieving her life goals.
Before the intervention of the Northern Uganda Resilience Initiative (NURI), Adokorach used to grow crops like cassava, beans, groundnuts, and maize on small scale and mostly for subsistence. “I would have very small quantities left for sale and in this situation, my family hardly saw good money”, says Adokorach.
Everything changed when our group Utungkic Farmer Group prioritized Onion as their strategic enterprise after a thorough cost-benefit analysis and training in farming as a business.
The group received training in Climate Smart Agriculture practices and collective marketing. “This helped my fellow group members which empowered me and applied better Post Harvest Handling Practices hence improving the quality of produce”, Adokorach confirmed.
In 2021, she opened 0.25 acres and planted onion (Red Creole variety). However, due to the poor weather, she only got 578kgs. From that production, in January 2022 her group did collective marketing from which she sold 500kgs at a unit price of UGX 1,600. Adokorach earned her UGX 800,000. “I did not sleep that night after receiving such money for the first time in my life”, recalls Adokorach.
I told my family and some group members about the hidden treasure in onion production. This excited and encouraged me to embrace onion production. I invested the money to purchase a sewing machine worth UGX 270,000 and paid tuition of UGX 400, 000 to pursue a tailoring course. “I wanted to have a steady source of income to provide for my family”, said Adokorach. She used the remaining UGX 130,000 to purchase a goat that has now produced twins.
“I plan to continue with onion production and increase the acreage from 0.25 to 0.5 in 2023” continued Adokorach. I also plan to get a place in a busy trading center such that I can earn a targeted income of UGX 500,000 from sewing alone. These alternative income sources will support the construction of her semi-permanent house.
I thank NURI for walking me through this progress!
Story credit: Agency for Accelerated Rural Development – AFARD
Leave a Comment
You must be logged in to post a comment.