A Presentation made by the Ugandan team During the Closing Conference of the Conservation and Sustainable management of the Below Ground Biodiversity Project

1. BGBD farmers’ experience in Uganda
Benefits from BGBD project
-Knowing the sustainable use of our land through the following proper farming practice
-Ploughing, -Spraying, Mulching, using maize and mucuna residue,
-Use of inorganic fertilizers like Urea, Dap, Phosphorous etc.
-Introducing earth worms to our fields
Introducing fields.
-Appreciating the value in our land for the crops grown, organisms living
under ground and minerals of different types.
-We have learnt proper land preparation like ploughing of compacted soils to regain its
fertility.
-We have learnt that proper use of herbicides coupled with mulching leads to high returns
in terms of soil fertility.
EARTHWORMS
As farmers, we have appreciated the value of earth worms
in our fields i.e. They help to aerate soil thus increasing its fertility.
Actually we realized that maize does well in areas with earth worms
than those without.
MAIZE GROWING
SOYA BEANS: Introduction of soy beans has enabled us to adopt We learnt about growing of maize using proper farming practices.
good practices like : -Well prepared land, Rhizobia / LNB, Urea, Requirements for maize growing include:
Phosphorus 1.Ploughing of land, Proper weed spraying, Mulching, Pre-planting of Mukuna in our fields,
30% profit is a sure deal if rhizobia is used. 2.Introducing earth worms into our fields
1 kg of Soya beans of Soy bean g
g y y gives 30 kgs at harvest.
g Weed spraying in regard to maize growing is cost effective (cheap) in terms of labor.
cost-
At shs 1,000 a kilo, a farmer earns an income of 30,000/=. Planting of maize.
Challenges of growing Soya beans: Spacing: 2½ feet between the lines, 30 cm between plants, (for a single seed)
-Limited land for commercial growing of Soya beans. Yields: 1kg of maize gives 100 kgs under good conditions.
-Limited funds to acquire inputs. Varieties: Longe 5 (Nalongo). This variety gives 2 cobs per plant.
-Failure to adopt good practices e.g 60 cm x 10 cm (2 seeds/ hole) -it is possible to rotate maize and Soya beans on the same field using the techniques we have been
taught.
Recommendations:
This project should be introduced to farmers all over the country as
the knowledge can benefit all.
Conclusion:
We are really grateful to the coordinators of BGBD for all the
assistance they have rendered to us in terms of knowledge, seeds
and other forms of facilitations given to us in seminars and
workshops.
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Thank you so much and may God bless you.
Immaculate Namata
(On behalf of the farmers)