Shamba Shape Up Uganda Series 2 - Ep 17: Dairy Cow (AI), Beans, Banana, Pests and Poultry (English)

Welcome to Shamba Shape Up Uganda!

Today we’re in Wakiso district close the busy streets of Kampala and we’re visiting teacher and farmer James Serusa.

James is currently a science teacher in primary school. But he is acutely aware that he will be retiring soon. And so about 7 years ago he started to acquire land and getting into farming as a retirement plan.

He has local cows but has been working to upgrade them over the years. He has 6 cows that he considers to be averagely good. He is milking 4 to produce 25 litres a day. He also has a mix of calves and bulls.

As for the bananas. He is quite happy with the production. He currently makes 300,000 per month from his plantation

During the covid lockdowns, he reared layers. He was quite happy with them, but when he went back to work, he found that the workers were not doing a good job of taking care of them. Therefore, he now only has a few local birds.

He grows his own grasses to feed the cows [elephant grass, lab lab]. He also feeds them on banana stems and supplements with brewers’ marsh. When it comes to AI, he finds the price inhibiting, but the bigger challenge is not knowing when the cow is in heat.

As for the bananas, weevils have been a problem. He also intercrops his bananas with napier and cassava.

He works with his 1st born son, Semwanga Moses, who is in charge of managing the dairy animals and marketing the milk. His 2nd born son is an accountant.


We are learning about:

1. Dairy Cows: Artificial Insemination to improve breed and Cows in detecting heat.
2. Beans: How to plant a new variety of beans for food security and get additional income.
3. Poultry: How to keep Chickens.
4. Banana: Managing bananas for a bigger crop and pests in bananas.