Ocan has become a model farmer in Gulu district with several farmers going to his farm to learn. Photos by Simon Wokorach and Arnest Tumwesige
By Simon Wokorach
Gulu:
Clustered approximately 24 kilometers off Gulu–Kitgum road, James Ocan’s crops from multiple gardens are a motivation.
Between the canopies of bananas, the coffee trees prove their resilience to the current unpredictable rainfall. Although the temperature is always unpredictable, Ocan’s quest for prosperity is taking shape.
Sailing through the violent temperature is a struggle, so Ocan frequently fetches water from a nearby well to nourish his crops.
“Sometimes we don’t receive rain and I always make sure I wake up and carry water from the well to water my gardens. It involves much struggle but I am happy with the results,” Ocan cheerfully explained.
At the age of 53, Ocan, a father of four, is now an admirable farmer after working for years as a carpenter.
When the Country was battling to curtail the mass spread of Covid 19, enduring the lockdown that affected almost every sector of the economy, Ocan, had already left Gulu City [then municipality], and resettled at Wii-gweng village in Paicho sub-county. But, barely three years later, his furniture venture failed due to the pandemic.
Ocan grew up in an elite family and wanted to become a veterinary doctor like his biological father, but this dream changed because his father passed on when he just sat his Primary Leaving Examination.
Ocan could only watch many of his peers join St. Joseph College Layibi, which he cherished.
Since he could not join secondary school, he worked as a porter for various construction firms, where his enthusiasm for mixing up cement, sand, and aggregates, reshaped his dream of becoming a ‘veterinary doctor’ into an ‘architectural engineer’.
“I would go to work in the construction site in the morning but in the evening, I would make sure I buy some bottles of paraffin and sell them along the streets before going back home,” he narrates.
However, the dream to study architecture again faded due to lack of funds.”
“One evening, I saw people gathered near Kaunda Ground when I was going to sell the paraffin. I went to see them and found that they were recruiting orphans to sponsor in technical education,” he recounts.
Luckily he was among the 61 needy students selected for sponsorship from the 250 candidates. For two years [1992-1994] at Nile Vocational Institute, Ocan graduated with a Craft One Certificate in carpentry and joinery and practiced it for decades before crossing into farming.
From woodwork to farming
The enthusiastic farmer started with 50 banana suckers which cost him 25,000 shillings for farm inputs on two acres. He gradually introduced coffee, maize with each enterprise covering one acre of land. These are also intercropped with fruits like paw-paws.
“I would listen to the radio a lot during the pandemic but one day I heard some people teaching farmers how bananas can change their livelihoods and I had to rethink how this could be. I realized that all I was working for was to buy food, I couldn’t save money,” Ocan told GNNA.
His first intention to farm was to improve his food security, but the first yield was more than he expected, as he realized shs8.5m which doubled in the subsequent year.
The farm now has about 2,000 banana stems, avocado, jackfruit, and mango trees. In the backyard is a piggery and poultry farm, making his farm akin to the four-acre model, as advocated by President Yoweri Museveni.
Though he has yet to sell off his last season’s harvest of 2023, Ocan is hoping to accumulate close to shs20m.
“I kept wondering when the President would talk about shs20m in the household per year, but my target is now to get 50 million in few years to come,” he said.
Inspiring the village
The now branded model farmer has motivated locals nearby to embark on a similar journey with the hope of a transformative agricultural economy.
“I must succeed then grow together with others because they won’t be happy to see me prosper as they remain poor. That is why every day, I tell them how to fight poverty through farming,” he noted.
At least 26 households in the neighborhood have joined and been trained on banana and coffee growing, and other components of a simple model farm.
Initially, Ocan got discouraged that the land can’t support banana growing, but when he ventured into it, the harvest was so good that he started, moving from home to home with banana suckers on a wheelbarrow, distributing them to other farmers for free.
“Now they don’t only come to buy, but know we can change our lives together,” Ocan narrates.
A distance away from his farm stands yet another promising model home. Like several others, Monica Apiyo, who used to grow sorghum cassava and other food crops had to adopt the model farming.
“Everyone dreams about his [Ocan’s] home. You won’t believe that his home is in Acholi. I am happy that he gave me 36 banana suckers. They are doing well, unlike other crops” Apiyo observed.
Apiyo is hopeful to establish a plantation on a two-acre piece of land in the subsequent years and upgrade from a grass-thatched hut to a permanent house.
Local leader speaks
Charles Okello, the Chairperson of Paicho Sub County, said Ocan’s farm is a testament that the region can transform through agriculture.
Because of Ocan’s example, the Sub County is mobilizing banana farmers through their umbrella body ‘Gang Lobolo Farmers’ Association to recruit more families to open banana plantations.
Okello explained that the model farmers have rolled out training to other households who want to grow bananas.
He revealed that the Sub County has secured 3,000 suckers from the government, which will soon be given to the first batch of farmers to be identified during the training.
“We are trying to put them in groups through cooperatives so that they have a bargaining power in the markets, and we hope that this will change the face of this village,” Okello told this Publication.
President Museveni pledges
In February 2022, during his campaign on poverty eradication in Acholi, President Yoweri Museveni was impressed with the farms in Ocan’s village.
At Ocan’s home, Museveni broke his protocol and adored him for embracing what he described as medicine for poverty in the region.
“This man has understood my message on how we can fight poverty and this is what I have been telling Ugandans for many years,” Museveni said.
Museveni argued that unless Ugandans take agriculture seriously, they will remain poor.
“Yes, we have developed infrastructures like tarmac roads and electricity but Ugandans will still be poor because those are for the public. Ugandans must go for wealth and wealth is for individual households,” Museveni said.
Museveni pledged to support Ocan’s farm with irrigation to improve his production amidst erratic weather and urged him to share the facility with his neighbors who are equally affected by drought.
Museveni has severally asked the people in the Acholi Sub Region to use the available land and venture into commercial farming and advised those with small pieces of land to embrace the four-acre model of farming, to eradicate poverty.
Farmers still waiting for the pledge
Ocan is however skeptical if Museveni will honor the pledge of giving the irrigation equipment.
“We have been trying to follow up on this issue but the process is taking long and we aren’t sure when we shall get the facility,” Ocan said.
James Cosmas Okidi, the Resident District Commissioner Gulu has promised to follow up on the matter.
“I am writing a letter to the President to follow up on tomorrow (Monday) Okidi noted.
Build irrigation schemes in Northern Uganda
As Northern Uganda battles erratic rainfall and its effect on annual crops, Denty Mwaka, an independent agronomist believes that growing perennial crops will position the North into a money economy when farmers are supported.
Mwaka observed that crops like bananas and coffee require a lot of water to survive, thus, in the absence of rain, the government needs to prioritize the establishment of multiple irrigation facilities.
“For coffee, it doesn’t require only water but needs shades and I urge the farmers to go for intercropping where they can plant some trees in their farms or banana,” he advised.
Ministry of Water and Environment has of recent sunk billions of shillings into over 25 irrigation schemes in Northern Uganda. While some are fully under utilisation, others are struggling due to poor management by the users.
