In a world where hunger and malnutrition remain central causes of suffering and death, especially in sub Saharan Africa including Uganda, a farmer embracing agro ecology and organic farming in Eastern Uganda is addressing this challenge.

Mr Dauson Musasizi and his wife Dinah Musasizi who are settled in Nabote Village, Esinge Sub Country, Namutumba district have set up one acre modal farm with various agricultural enterprises as demonstration farm for other farmers to come and learn from.

In this one acre farm the couple is able to obtain nutritious food as well as sell the proceeds as income earning initiative.

Background

Mr Dauson explains that he left his village in Bwuikwe at the age of 23 and went to Namutumba as an evangelist to preach the word of God to the people.

He began his life as a simple youth renting a one room house and later embarked on his studies to pursue theological studies where he attained Bachelors of Theology from Alpha-Omega Seminary in Jinja and Doctor of Arts in Theology from Northwest Christian University.

He later got married and they began the journey of farming where in 2013 they bought 3 acre land which was sandy and depleted.

Within the community in Namutumba people would sell land before cutting the tress, fruit shades and those who kept animals did not understand the value of the animal waste.

The couple kept on purchasing land and today they have 60 acres of land with one acre allocated as a modal farm namely Busoga Farmers Resource Centre.

It serves as a place for mindset change with several small enterprise that show how families can start small, grow healthy food and increase house hold incomes through regenerative agriculture.

The farmer began using regenerative agriculture by planting trees, including fruits such as mangoes, avocado, cocoa, coffee and today they have over 400, trees on their land.

They also mix anthill soil with cow dung to regenerate the soil to make it fertile for farm production.

Musasisi views farming not just as a means of survival, but as a spiritual calling and a practical way to fight household poverty.

He often notes that while preaching a sermon is simple, getting boots on the ground to help people build economic stability requires physical commitment and stewardship.

The enterprises on the demonstration farm, achievements and challenges

Mr Musasizi explained that the demonstration farm includes banana plantation where mulching is key to obtain good yields, poultry with over 40 local chicken where he obtains 15 eggs per hen during laying season each sold at Shs1, 000, Apiary with over 40 bee hives where he is able to harvest between 5-9 liters per bee hive and processed honey in a season about 60 litres as well as insect farming of breeding black soldier flies to feed the chicken.

Others are vegetable growing, farming spices comprising of stevia, blue berry fly and ginger used for processing juice and applied in tea, dairy cows with two cows giving him 35 liters of milk daily and once sold he is able to get 180,000.

He has about 15 coconut trees from which he harvests the fruits and each is sold at Shs5, 000 per fruit. The best enterprise is fish farming with various fish ponds on the farm.

“The enterprises usually result into high production due to best regenerative farm practices we have adopted. We use the cow dung to produce gas for cooking, lighting and heating the brooder, while bio slurry fertilizes vegetables, banana and fish ponds. Banana stems and leaves are fed to cows and water from the fish ponds is reused for irrigation,” Musasizi notes.

He explains that today the one acre farm is a learning centre for farmers, students, youth and women groups where they are hosted to experience practical farm life.

“I have received a medal from the President a number of awards including agricultural transformation and nominated as the best organic farmer in 2024 and 2025 by NOGAMU stands for the National Organic Agricultural Movement of Uganda” he notes.

Another enterprise is use of solar power for postharvest activities since electricity from the main grid is unreliable.

This helps in provision of constant clean source of water for livestock and to process dry herbs and fruits into high value added products.

Overall Mr Musasizi notes that healthy food is a primary goal of his farm and this demonstrated by the write ups on walls at his farm” farming is a calling”, “Grow what you eat and eat what you grow” , “the person who works hard his land will have plenty of food”,  “ my garden is my best teacher, “ growing your own food will make you earn money” , “ feed the soil it will feed the plant and don’t eat every food unless it is safe”.

He advocates for use of organic compost animal waste, mulching to improve the soil texture as well as use of legumes and tree planting as source of shade for coffee and to enhance environment conservation.

Out of the demonstration farm

Mr Musasizi is growing cocoa on 3 acres of the part of the land. He has optioned portions for growing rice, maize and banana where he applied basin farming technique that retains water during dry season.

He also keeps over 20 local cow breeds namely Ankole cattle and Friesian. His fish ponds has the capacity to stock 60,000 fish but as of now it is less.

Challenges

According to Dr Musasizi organice and regenerative farming is not all rosy but there are challenges which include high labour for eliminating synthetic pesticides which is done manually, expensive natural inputs, pest and weed management which relies on physical work

Others are slow nutrient release from organic composites to the soil and sourcing enough organic matter to enrich the soil.

Marketing organic products for export require certification and the process is expensive and not affordable to a number of organic farmers as well as the price volatility which may not attract enough income to the farmer.