When  Solome Abalo resigned from her formal work in 2022 to concentrate on farming and selling agricultural seedlings, many people despised her decision. Three years on, Abalo is having the last laugh as she testifies that farming has enabled her to pursue further studies while expanding her business.

Her venture into farming challenged the obsolete but persisting belief in northern Uganda that agriculture is a dirty job for the uneducated.

“I don’t regret my decision to leave formal employment. I am sponsoring myself at the University, running my agribusiness input, and my life is not bad; all these were made possible because of farming.”

Abalo 33, an Agricultural Engineer by Profession who is also pursuing her Master’s Degree in Biosystems Engineering at Gulu University, started farming vegetables from a small plot of land (400 square meters) in Bungatira in Gulu District 400 square meters where she worked as an extension worker,  training women.

In 2020, she expanded her farming to three acres in Hima Parish, Koch Goma Town Council in Nwoya District, where she started growing onions, eggplants, and sunflowers. Currently, she has two acres of watermelon and an acre of tomatoes, and another acre that is still under tilling will be for eggplant

Asked why she does vegetables only, Abalo responded: “With vegetables, you earn money in a very short time.”

Abalo said she harvests these vegetables three to four times a year, and with vegetables, you easily get out of poverty.

She encourages people to do more vegetables and also perennial crops like coffee and bananas since they are lifetime investments.

“My life is about changing lives and inspiring people, especially women, to do something productive,” adds Abalo

With the changing patterns in climate that the country has been experiencing for a while, Abalo advises farmers to consider planting early maturing crops like vegetables, drought-tolerant varieties.

“Farmers should consider water sources as the priority. It is painful if water is the only thing letting you down after investing so much in farming. If you don’t have water from the swampy areas, then drill them for production. These are the only ways we can adapt to the changing climate. Invest to have high output/outcome.”

Gone are the days when people considered agriculture as for dropouts from schools. It is not surprising that people in formal sector employment are resigning to focus on agriculture.

One such person is Arthur Nkubito.  In 2018, he bought 80 acres in Nwoya District, Northern Uganda, where he specialises in goat rearing, pineapple and chilli growing.

In March 2022, after resigning from his formal work, Nkubito relocated from Western Uganda to Lungulu Subcounty in Nwoya District, where he started growing pineapples, plantain and goat rearing.

“During my line of work in a nongovernmental organisation(NGO), we engaged a lot with farmers. After two to three years, when doing an evaluation, you find that when they have made significant progress and you train them, you are constantly relying on salary. This inspired me to venture full-time into commercial farming, and I am here making quick money out of it instead of relying on a salary.”

Nkubito owns 14 acres of pineapple, 7 acres of plantain and over 40 goats, which cements his belief to rely on economies of scale to beat climate change effects. To him, these are some of the fruits that withstand the unpredictable change in weather patterns.

“The soils in northern Uganda, particularly in Nwoya are really excellent, very fertile, enabling the growth of almost all the varieties and with the hot climate, which is conducive”

However, he acknowledges that farmers with both short-term crops and perennial crops are doing extremely well amidst the climate change patterns. “Once the short-term crops don’t perform well, you are sure of the smile you will have from your long-term varieties since there is a ready market for them already.”

Nkubito admits that sourcing for labour remains one of the biggest challenges commercial farmers face most times. They have to source labour from East Acholi, Lango or Packwach to do harvesting once its time has clocked, since most people are a bit lazy.

As it has always been advised not to depend on salary only but to find alternative means of increasing household income, Betty Apiyo’s has taken that advice seriously.

Apiyo, a primary school teacher, together with her husband, owned a farm called “Zakaayo Harvest Hub” located in Keyo Village, Palema parish, Lamogi Subcounty in Amuru District.

“We decided to leave Gulu City and relocate to the village to focus on our farm. I spend all my weekends and holidays at the farm, weekdays at school. That was the best decision we have made since we were “wasting” a lot of time in town doing nothing productive. ”

In 2023, they started farming by planting tomatoes and cabbage. Currently, at their farm, they have an acre of onions and tomatoes, which they irrigate using an irrigation scheme they bought.

“In a day, we use a full tank of water (5,000 litres) to irrigate tomatoes and onions. These volumes of water are still not enough, and it’s the reason we don’t grow cabbage during the dry season because it consumes a lot of water.” she says.

She reveals that through farming, they can pay their children‘s fees on time since they harvest those vegetables three times a year, and it has reduced the cost of their living.

The farmers’ successes demonstrate that much as climate change is impacting farming negatively, overcoming some of the taboos and stereotypes impeding attitudes towards farming can radically alter the poor state of farming in the region.

Becky Laker Oweka, Youth Councillor IV, Bardege-Layibi Division, who has about 30 rabbits and 10 local chickens, challenges youth to change their mindset

“The biggest problem we youths in Acholi have is the poverty of the mindset that prevents us from thinking outside the box. Let us stop despising jobs instead, let us grab all the opportunities until we have succeeded, whether it is what we studied at University or not.”  

According to her, it is high time people start adapting to Climate Smart Agriculture practices where they rear birds like chickens, rabbits, along drought drought-tolerant crops such as bananas and coffee, in addition to our traditional way of farming crops such as millets, sorghum, and soya beans to alleviate us from poverty.

Read Also: Fast Maturing Crops, Plastic Irrigation: Lira Women’s Answer to Climate Change

Dr Tamim Ebong, Nwoya District Production Officer, discloses that the government has introduced two irrigation schemes, a solar-run engine for pumping water and a diesel-run engine.

“These shared costs are helping our farmers to continue to produce crops, vegetables and fruits even in the dry season”

He calls upon farmers to utilise the opportunity of the project before it ends in December, while advising them to plant fast-maturing and drought-resistant crops to cope with changing patterns in the climate.

The production of this story was supported by InfoNile in partnership with Climate Smart Jobs.