Despite growing up in a family that practiced Agriculture, Ms. Peskin Nahabwe, 25 years old, a KHEA Multiplier had never really picked much interest in farming.
Nahabwe, who hails from the beautiful green hills of Rweshande village in Ntungamo district, grew up with her father who carried out farming on a 14- acre piece of land but never had a thought that she too would be a farmer. Being in a boarding school only worsened the situation as she had less time to join her father on the farm.
Back home, they always carried out mixed farming and horticulture. They grew mainly vegetables like cabbages, hot pepper and tomatoes; crops including bananas, coffee; birds such as chicken; Animals such as cattle keeping, goats; and fishponds; trees to mention but a few.
In 2020, Nahabwe happened to join the “Youth in Agro-Ecology & Business Learning Track Africa (YALTA)” group that teaches youth about organic farming. After the YALTA workshop that was hosted in a neighboring Rukungiri district, Nahabwe was enticed to join the organisation after hearing about organic farming for the first time.
Full of skepticism and interest about organic farming, Nahabwe asked to be trained more about organic farming. After being in YALTA for two months, Nahabwe asked to leave university for a five-day training in Masaka district organized at St. Jude Family Projects for KHEA Multipliers by PELUM Uganda under the Knowledge Centre for Organic Agriculture (KCOA) project under the KHEA hub in 2020.
Nahabwe was impressed by what she saw at the demonstration farm at St. Jude and immediately developed the love to go and replicate what she had learnt back home.
On returning from Masaka, Nahabwe couldn’t wait to exercise the skills and knowledge she had acquired on her home farm, which made her not to return to university but go back home immediately to tell her father and entire family about Agroecology.
Following these engagements, Nahabwe started farming organically on her father’s farm where she grows hot pepper, cabbages, eggplants and so on.
As a multiplier on the KCOA-KHEA Project trained by PELUM Uganda, Nahabwe has been able to train seventeen farmers on her own and has co-trained sixteen other farmers with an-other multiplier from Rukungiri district.
Agroecology has created a wide market for their crops like hot pepper on the international market and these fetch higher prices compared to the inor- ganic products.
“Mzeei (father) makes about UGX 800,000 from hot pepper weekly because his products are organic,” said Nahabwe.
For more information visit; https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j9kBXeafjoo&t=5s
Success story collection – done by Ezra Kalule – KHEA Project Officer – PELUM Uganda,
Edited, reviewed&uploaded by Magino Pamella-KHEA Communications Officer-PELUM Uganda and Biovision Africa Trust Kenya
Author: Pamella Magino
Ms. Magino Pamella joined Participatory Ecological Land Use Management (PELUM) Uganda on 1st October 2021 as a Communications Officer for the KCOA-KHEA Project. She comes with over 9 years’ experience as a Communications and Marketing professional in the area of Public Relations, Business Development and Marketing. Pamella offers her clients a visionary and holistic approach to developing communication strategies that are both effective and efficient. Pamella holds a Bachelor’s Degree in Mass Communication majored in Public Relations and a Certified Member of the Public Relations Association Uganda a recognized umbrella body of all private and public Public Relations professionals, Communication Specialists, Brand Managers, Mass Communication & other related disciplines’ in Uganda. She previously worked with different organizations; The Nile Basin Initiative Secretariat Entebbe, Victoria University Kampala –Uganda, MK Publishers Limited, Monitor Publications Limited, School Times Newspaper, Prime Radio, Africa Youth Leadership Forum, League of Young Professionals Uganda, Volunteer Evolution Arica, Eliham Girl Child charity house.
