“I never used to earn as much.”
Testified Jamila Eton
Through CPAR Uganda, a local NGO, we were taught good farming methods. They showed us to grow it in rows, with one seed per hole. With good rains, we weed after one month. Then three weeks after that. Sunflower will be ready for harvest within three months.
Simsim is good too as a cash crop and for health reasons. We plant it twice in a year. However, the second season is not as commercially rewarding as the first season due to the weather changes.
In a season, I planted 15 kilogrammes on three acres. This costs me Shs. 48,000 (forty eight thousand shillings). The last season was a successful one. I earned Shs.1.2m (one million, two hundred thousand shillings).
The highest I have attained from simsim is Shs. 2m (two million shillings) in a season, which encouraged me a lot.
From groundnuts I have earned Shs. 500,000 (five hundred thousand shillings).
I never used to earn as much from my efforts.
I have also learnt that I should always be doing something and should not sit back. I was taught to do anything small like selling onions or plant vegetables in a small place but never sit back. Initially my husband was providing everything but now, I cannot depend entirely on him. That is how I have started thinking out of the box, to try crops I have not been growing, like matooke.
This is an extract of Jamila’s testimony that was reported by Edgar R. Batte. To read the full testimony, read Batte’s article titled: “Dokolo farmer earning from sunflower, simsim”that was published in the Daily Monitor.
CPAR Uganda Ltd 