Plant clinics now an Asset to the farmers.

Plants clinic activities rocked high during the farmer’s market information symposium. This was realized during the market information symposium held from 24^th-25^th at Kisinga play ground Kisinga sub county Kasese district. This was the second symposium of its kind in Uganda, it’s meant to bring buyers and farmers together. The symposium was co-organized by RIC-NET and KRC with support and funding form FIT Uganda and Agric-Pro-focus Uganda. The theme of the symposium was “promoting farmers entrepreneurship through the provision of sustainable market information services to enhance competitive trade”. Agric-Pro-Focus work with individuals, groups, companies and organizations like HIVOS, SNV and Oxfam working in the agriculture sector.

Plant doctor were able to attend to 372 farmers for two days. The Doctors were Mr. Asaba Wilberforce, Ms. Biira Astaluzi, and Ms.Walina Juliet who operate daily in the markets of Ksinga, Mpondwe and Kinyabisiki respectively in Bukonzo County in Kasese district.

Below is the summary of what happened at Plant clinic stole.

		Number of farmers involved.
Crop samples	Disease and symptoms identified	Female	Males	Total
Beans	Leaf wilting, Injury o leaves, Growing points etc due to feeding damage	121	46	167
Maize	Leaves: vein yellowing, inter-vein yellowing, leaf yellowing, yellow blotching of leaves, yellow mosaic of leaves, leaf curling, leaf crumpling, leaf vein thickening, leaf elations, leaf cupping,	122	71	191
Banana	Banana bacterial will, with yellowing of leaves and stunted growth.	89	172	161
Cocoa	Seeds on flower covered to dark spore mass	23	44	67
Ground nuts	Stunted growth and yellowing of leaves. Nematodes and fungus on the leaves	111	79	190
Mangoes oranges	Falling down by ripening, others splitting leave large opening.	34	41	75
pawpaw	Bacterial and fungus	02	09	11
cassava	Cassava mosaic begomo viruses.Symptoms;Stunting,Mosaic,Choloris Leaf distortion, ‘Candle stick	135	69	204
pineapple	Stunted growth	17	45	52
Cabbages	Bacterial, warms, fungus and nematodes.	21	09	30
Other vegetables.	silvery, curved larval mines on leaf underside, Leaf shedding, feeding tunnels visible on the stems, Leaf yellowing, Stunted growth & eventual  mortality	34	11	45

Note: These figures depend on the information the farmers were giving to the Plant Doctors during the entire exercise. The figures apply to particular crop(s) on the prescription form(s) from the Plants Doctors during the two day market information symposium.

Asaba Wilberforce Plant Doctor in white court attending to mangoe farmers

According to the chairperson LC III Kisinga sub county Mr. Chance Kahindo, mentioned that “this is a big relief that NGO’s have come in to supplement the work the government had intended to do but due to other factors it has not been done”. Farmers have most often been frustrated by pests and disease which have led to low output per acre. Farmers too expressed their heartfelt gratitude to these plant doctors have are volunteering to offer service to the farmers. “it was not heard off that plants can also be taken to the clinic”. They thanked RIC-NET for giving these people knowledge and skills to help. 

tomatoes in the market

The chairperson LCV Kasese on the same stole mentioned that farmers should utilize these people well, support them.

However these plants Doctors who have for the past 2 years been helping farmers voluntarily are not facilitated to keep moving from village to village educating farmers on better and improved methods of farming. Some time they have received resistance from some local government personally thinking they are disrupting their activities. Some farmers mentioned that it would be ideal for the government to take on plant clinic activities and those that have already done the work and have the skills should be give the chance and opportunity to work with the farmers at the grass root level. Could this be a thought by the Kasese District local government to take on Plant Clinic activities?

Information sharing key towards commercialization of Agriculture

Information sharing key towards commercialization of Agriculture. This was realized during the market information symposium held from 24th-25th at Kisinga play ground Kisinga sub county Kasese district. This was the second symposium of its kind in Uganda, it’s meant to bring buyers and farmers together. The symposium was co-organized by RIC-NET and KRC with support and funding form FIT Uganda and Agric-Pro-focus Uganda. The theme of the symposium was “promoting farmers entrepreneurship through the provision of sustainable market information services to enhance competitive trade”. Agric-Pro-Focus work with individuals, groups, companies and organizations like HIVOS, SNV and Oxfam working in the agriculture sector.

Around 600 farmers attended the symposium from within Kisinga which comprised farmers and groups The function too was attended by different farmers groups in Kasese [Rwenguhya farmers association dealing with fish farming, Kisinga community Sacco dealing with poultry and livestock,Maliba farmers association dealing with corona coffee,Bukonzo joint farmers dealing with processing coffee, which support farmers in sustainable agriculture, Snow Rural community association dealing in farming, Rwenzori integrated wildlife management which deals in fish farming, Babughirana cooperatives dealing in cassava farming], and individual farmers from within who had come to either buy or sell their products. Other farmers[groups and individuals were from; Kamwenge bee keepers association, Bunyangabo bee keepers from Kabarole, Masindi farmers association, NORAK from Bundibugyo District. Organizations which deal with information sharing were also represented like Bwera information center, Community Agriculture business capacity service [CABES] from Kabarole. There were also buyers represented by ESCO Uganda, Bakwanya Trading Company, William grain millers Quick service Supper market Fort portal and other companies from within and outside Uganda

The purpose of the symposium was to bring farmers and buyers together and share market information. Market information may include price information [trend of prices, current market price and the seasonal variations], information on buyers and offers in the market, weather; transport especially the fuel prices and means of transport. Other market information shared include on finance [agro- business loan and funding], production especially with data like quantity quality and standard. Transport information on list of buyers, distance and availability. The importance of market information is; helps to know how to plant, when, what and to who, do cost analysis, transform the lives of farmers. Market information helps farmers in decision marking Farmer’s voices were that there is inadequate ongoing market information, weather and climate have affected production, farm management methods are not used, and price and price fluctuations tend to frustrate farmers and leads to a negative attitude towards agriculture. However some members reiterated that the problem of farmers can still be handled by farmers themselves. Sometimes farmers still and wait for information. Mr. James Makundu a farmer in Kisinga mentioned that farmers can easily access information if “they form groups, society or cooperatives. We cannot wait for other people to come and unite us” Mr. Bonny Muthahinga a model farmer in Kiburara agreed with some farmers that there is need to intensify information sharing. “True farmers we don’t look for information, buyers should also help us with information of what should be produced and ongoing market prices.”

Farmers agreed that “information is a key for any successful farming”, farmers should develop the Vision towards Agriculture, do market research offers and prices, commercialize agriculture and make value of the service performed by members of the house hold in the farm. Ms Sarah Bogere a community worker mentioned that one problem is having large families. There is need for family planning [have few children]. Farmers should learn to budget for the families. Farmers also agreed to support and search for information to improve agriculture. Let us make agriculture more of business. Most people engage in crop product as life style that had be inherited from the great grandparents, this is a chance and let us use it wisely to commercialize what we produce by engaging in large scale production. I therefore call on all the stake holders [the government agriculture department at local level and national level, the community based organization, faith based organization] to intensify the provision of information to the farmer. Since Rwenzori region is the basket of food in Uganda, farming can be the other alternative to move away from poverty.

the effectiveness of the ICT based tools in teaching English

TRAINING OF TEACHERS OF ENGLISH IN INNOVATIVE METHODS……SUCCESSFUL Computers for schools (cfsu) RIC-NET have successfully completed a four days training of English teachers in improving effective teaching-learning processes through ICT enabled innovative methods. The training that started on 7th - 10th May 2012 attracted secondary school teachers from Kabarole and Kasese Districts involving schools of St.Leo’s college, Kyebambe Girls Rutete S.S and St.Charles Voc SS, St.Thereza Girls’ and Kilembe SS respectively. Bwera teachers’ college from Kasese also was presented for the work of preparing teachers who provide a foundation for learners in secondary schools. The training was facilitated by Stella Nekesa, ICT officer connect for change [CFSU] in charge of ICT tool development for learning. Lydia Kamba,incharge of development of training manual and development, John Silco ED RIC-NET ,in charge of general administration and implementation of the project and project spokesperson. Yosia Baluku,ICT officer RIC-NET and Charles Kaliba Outreach officer in charge of research and documentation.

The training was focusing on how to integrate the traditional methods of teaching English Language [chalk and talk] with use of ICT. [Focus on developing the skills of Teachers with ICT innovative methods of teaching that is expected to yield more results, at least 2 teachers of English from each selected School attended. The projects are being piloted in 6 schools and 2 teacher training colleges in Kasese and kabarole Districts. ICT based tools allows to create, store, display information in its form. Group discussions on the situation in schools as far as teaching English is concerned were conducted in the course of the training. Issues discussed were; problems faced in the teaching learning of English, methods of teaching English and how to handle the different abilities in class. A discussion on the 4 skills and how they’re applied in the teaching process [reading, speaking, listening and writing] were discussed whether they’re achieved at the end of the lesson? To be good teachers, it was discussed that one should possess the following; exploratory, assessment, competent, interactive and passion. The alternative learning methods include; Learning station method, Lexical approach, English circle method. Think-Pair share method. Grammar translations, Practice presentation and product, Phonic, Direct approach, Notional-functional approach. Task based learning, [from the traditional methods that have been used] ICT integration by using ICT tools which included [digital storytelling, teaching using pictures and cinema education].

Mr. John Silco took the participants through Cineduc [using movie and videos in education]. This is video education of about 15-30 min. the video can be stopped in between to allow discussion [stop video discussion]. The teacher may assign students certain characters in the video and allow each participant follow the video. The video can be used to test the 4 skills [listening, speaking, writing and reading].

Challenges that were raised as likely to affect the innovation were; Teachers may ignore the innovation after the training since it will be involving double preparation of the lesson. Teachers may fear challenges of students who may have a lot of skills in ICT than them. Ability to continue practicing may be hampered by scarcity of tools in schools. Attitude of teachers towards change.

CFSU Uganda also promised to offer Generators, Laptops, projectors, projector screens, speakers and also technical back up in case it is needed and also a continuous follow up and trainings at schools. The training ended on 10th May 2012 and teachers appreciated this initiative. They designed work plans for individual schools on what is going to be done as soon as the schools open and promised to be cooperative whenever called upon. the