Uganda kitchen gardening: An innovative way to use space

Okaba in her kitchen garden, which is set up in the Mandara style. Photo By Ephraim Kasozi.

Even without enough land, it is still possible for a farmer to produce for both their households and the market.

By Ephraim Kasozi
Daily Monitor
Jan 8, 2014

Excerpt:

At 60 years of age, due to age, Joyce Okaba is unable to cultivate a large area of land but she earns her living through kitchen gardening.
Her home in Otina village, Agwata Sub County in Dokolo District, has different gardens with vegetables and a pit for preparing manure.

Since November 2011, she has been growing vegetables for both domestic use and market from the five small gardens around her home to earn a living.

“I earn up to Shs200,000 from the sale of my produce. I usually sell from home to the communities. I also help my neighbours to learn the practice and make fertilisers,” she says.

The design of the gardens around her compound is suitable as she uses less energy to manage and harvest produce. Types of compound gardens include Mandara, where soil is heaped and a hole is left for water and manure, a sack garden where soil is packed in the sack with stones, and a key-hole garden where soil is heaped in a key-like shape leaving space for a hole to collect water and fertilisers during the rain.

Okaba also grows vegetables in a key-hole garden. “I get vegetables for my family and also surplus for sale at the market. But I am able to manage the gardens jointly with my domestic work and they are safe from thieves or animals,” she says.

Read the complete article here.