Subsistence farming is mainly practiced on small scale piece of land and food grown in this type of farming is majorly for home consumption and you can sell some if In surplus.
Kasawo is a region located in wakiso district,well known for cocoa and coffee growing, this region is enriched with cocoa and coffee plantantions on my visit to this area, I met a young couple practicing pro subsistence farming unlike their neighbours with cocoa plantations on both large and small scale. The young couple's dream was to become one of the great farmers in the region specialized in subsistence farming. On my interview with them Mr.Mukibi and wife shared with me how they used their small piece of land to their benefit and how you can successfully earn in subsistence farming.
Below are some of the methods the young couple used to successfully benefit in subsistence farming and how they started.
At first we found the land dry in nutrients, you couldn’t plant any crop on it and have good yields Mr.Mukibi said it was even one of the reasons the land lord sold them the land claiming that it couldn’t bear any yields but only a construction.
We first prepared the land by clearing all the bushes, debreeze after we ploughed the land two to three hoes.
We bought three sacks of dry chicken manure and applied them into the garden before planting to boost the soil fertility.
Vegetables that is to say Nakati was their first crop to plant and his reason was he said we had to first test the land with first growing plants like vegetables
After 1-2 weeks, we applied NPK fertilisers on our Nakati and applied it again after 3-5 weeks after weeding to boost the plant growth and increase on soil nutrients.
We had a good harvest of Nakati, it was so green and healthy with big leaves, our harvest surprised everyone one mostly our neighbours because all they thought was that the land was too infertile to yield a good harvest.
On the same land Mr. Mukiibi used his monthly capital and started chicken farming with 70 chicks of kroilers in one of his unfinished rooms inside their main house, he well feed them and in three months once that were chicks were full grown chicken, ate some and sold the rest.
He used the income he earned from the chicken and boosted his chicken farm, they switched to wooden cage farming up to date ,when I asked why they switched to this new type of farming he said it was cheap to start , easy to clean and maintain and mostly it can accommodate a number of chicken in a small space.
They used the chicken manure from their chicken farm and applied it on the other part of the land where they had grown maize and banana plants.
From subsistence farming, the young couple have managed to cater for their family and even pursue their dream of becoming the great farmer's in the region.
In conclussion
Subsistence farming is primalry for home consumption however like Mr.Mukibi and the wife you can also monetize your subsistence farming and not only for providing food at home but also earn rom it by taking an example of the young couple and applying some of the methods they used.
Inspiring
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