Sun flowering

Patrick Ogwang (ogwangpatrick@yahoo.com) is a thirty-year-old farmer from Dokolo in Northern Uganda. Many people who were driven away by armed conflicts before now live in this area. Only since two years the area is experiencing a relative sense of safety. HIV/ Aids is another major issue which is always present and disrupts family life. Patrick got married in 2007, he and his wife have two little boys, of which one is already going to nursery. Patrick owns two acres of land where he grows several crops like maize, soyabeans, sweet potatoes, sogum, peas and sesame seed.

Patrick became a member of the Uganda Oilseed Producers and Processors Association (UOSPA) in 2005. UOSPA promotes sunflower growing among its farming members as a means of generating additional income. In order to enable farmers to market their commodities in a better way, UOSPA is also supporting them to organise themselves in groups. The promotional activities of UOSPA stimulated Patrick in making his decision to start growing sunflowers. Besides promoting sunflower cultivation, UOSPA also offers extensive service to its members. On average Patrick is visited by an UOSPA advisor twice a month. During those visits together they identify bottlenecks, after which they share their findings with the other farmers in the group in order to think up solutions. Patrick and his group also attend training sessions organised by UOSPA. Here they learn about different issues like: good agronomic practice (e.g. intercropping and rotation of crops), land preparation and planting techniques, farming as a business, nutrition, HIV/Aids and hygiene. Patrick indicated that he learns a lot from these trainings.

Patrick regards sunflower as an easy growing crop which, when the knowledge obtained from the trainings of UOSPA is applied correctly, does not require too much labour. Therefore he can pay more attention to his other crops and his cattle. He now owns one cow and a calve, two goats and eight chickens. Furthermore, sunflower enables him to earn cash money. Compared to the period before he grew sunflowers, Patrick estimates that he is now earning 1,000 to 2,000 Ugandan Shillings extra per day. With that money (though worth less than 1 Euro) he feels that he can take better care of his cattle and he feels he can support his family very well. Patrick is also saving some money now, and with those savings he expects to be able to provide his children with good education when they grow older. According to Patrick, these positive changes in his life can be attributed to the growing of sunflowers and the very instructive trainings organised by UOSPA.