Betty baking one of her cassava cakes at her bakery site

Betty Ouni is of age 48 years. She belongs to OryemCan Widows and Orphans group. This group comprises of 36 members of which 12 are men.

Her husband died 20 years ago leaving her with their 6 children to singlehandedly care for. She later took into her care 4 orphans. One of the Orphans is doing nursing at Lira Comprehensive with a semester tuition of 2 million shillings while another is doing Computer studies at the Computer Centre in Lira.

Betty embarked on the baking business in 2014 after CAVA trained her in processing HQCF and baking using cassava flour. She is now known by many for her cassava cakes.

She bakes cakes for Introduction ceremonies, Graduation and Birthdays. These different cakes cost 250,000/-, 300,000/- and 50,000 or 80,000/- shillings respectively.

Betty extends this knowledge and skills in baking using HQCF to other women (local and regional), and has focused more on including widows like herself to bake using cassava as an alternative to wheat flour.

Betty with one of the Widows she has extended skills and Knowledge in baking using HQCF

Betty is often invited to train other women groups and farmers in baking. Since 2014, She has trained 390 members in Alebtong in bakery using HQCF and also trained 540 school drop outs in Oyam district.

However, before Betty took on baking, she was more focused in farming as a multi crop farmer (Rice, Cotton, Millet and cassava). She started farming cassava in 2011 and from then, her life has gotten even better.

Today, Betty owns a 34acre garden of NaSE 14 Cassava variety that she planted in March 2016, of planting materials she accessed through AfrII CAVA II/CSS projects.

‘Cassava has supported me to grow other crops like cotton. I grew 4 acres of cotton on land I hired from earnings I made from my processed cassava chips, cakes and stem cuttings that I sold’ remarks Betty.

Betty Ouni in her cassava garden of Nase14 clean seed. This is located in Lira District, Baar sub county

In 2015, she earned Over 4 Million from stem cuttings sold and in 2016, she sold 178 bags of NASE 14 cuttings at 20,000 shillings each to fellow farmers for multiplication.

These farmers are spread out to Kole, Oyam and Dokolo districts.

The farmer group she belongs to has been contracted to supply over 2000 bags of stems of NASE 14 to operation wealth creation in April 2017 this year. They intend to sell these at about 40-45,000 shillings per bag.

Betty’s achievements are even bigger. She has established a commercial building in Baar, for which she has big plans.

“This building cost me 16 Million shillings and I am still spending more on it. All the 3 rooms will serve different purposes. one room is a store for my harvest and processed HQCF Grits and Flour, the other is for my baked products while for the other room, I intend to stock it up with herbicides (non-selective and selective)” Betty Processes about 12 tons in a month of HQCF and supplies to the local markets.

Betty proudly shows off her millions worth commercial building.

She intends to construct another structure of which part of the building will be a better housing spot for her and the children. She also wants to buy a Motor cycle to ease transportation. She makes deliveries to far distances of which transport costs are high.

Betty in the house that her late husband left her in. She has never demolished it for memory of how far she has come.

“When you are a widow, people think you cannot survive on your own without a husband to take care of you. I am a living example that you can always make it in life, even after you are left all alone with children to have to feed and educate.

 I am glad for the far I have come since CAVA II Uganda discovered me, the knowledge and skills development extended to me by this project have made me who I am today. A successful widow’ remarks Betty appreciatively”.

Started small, grew bigger and is now ranked the leading Cassava seed multiplier in the whole of East Africa. 

Mr. Akutu Augustine of 54 years is married with 9 children. Farming has given him a life he had never imagined. He has been able to educate his children, set up a firm home and gone beyond, to become a man of great influence within the community. His passion for farming stems from his upbringing. “my father was a farmer but he was more into cattle rearing. He never put in much effort in cassava farming, in fact he never encouraged it. I however changed it all, back in 1978 when I embarked on a new journey and took to farming cassava. I was a boy then but, look, 39 years later, this is how much I have achieved from cassava”remarks Akutu. ‘By the way, back when I was in school, I never liked any of the other subjects except Maths. I was a man of numbers and now I am counting money from my efforts in cassava production.” He chuckles after this remark.

Mr. Akutu poses with his good harvest of the NaROCASS 1 root from his cassava garden

Mr. Akutu owns 16 acres of NaSE 14 and another 84 acres of NaROCASS 1 on his farm in Acumu, Amuria district. Additionally, Akutu has cleared an additional 122 acres of land on the farm to expand his multiplication of clean cassava seed.

Mr. Akutu with his wife and their first born son on their newly purchased 120acre piece of land for multiplication of NaROCASS 1 and NaSE 14 cassava varieties

Mr.Akutu and his wife holding one of the donkeys that is used to plough their land before cultivation

As a model farmer, the community now turns to him for advice on cassava production, both in processing and farming. He has reached out to over 1,000 farmers in Amuria District and beyond. “Cassava is giving me good record, even at home. I train other farmers in good agronomic practices, and even avail them knowledge and skills in processing to obtain High quality cassava flour. In a week, I get at least 30 farmers coming to see me to learn. Since 2013 when AfrII discovered me and extended such knowledge, I have since become a ‘big’ man”

“Beyond just availing knowledge, my wife and I support fellow community members in times of hardships for example, when a neighbor loses a loved one, we give them both dried and fresh cassava to cater for food. We have also created employment because people come to peel cassava for us when we are going to process, from this, they earn some good money to keep them going. Also, by hiring a Vehicle to transport my cassava from my garden in Amucu to home where we do the processing, this is money for the owners of that vehicle.” His cassava garden is about 20 Kms from his home.

In addition, due to the ongoing hunger badly affecting the region, Mr. Akuttu says he is assisting whenever he can by giving out some root to the farmers that approach him in plight of hunger.

In 2016, Mr. Akutu sold 6000 bags of stem cuttings that earned him about 40 Million Uganda Shillings. He sold an additional 330 bags that earned him about 30 Million Uganda shillings. Each bag goes 30,000 Uganda shillings.

This year 2017, he has been given an LPO to supply 481 bags of cassava stem cuttings to Abim District. This deal is yet to be another breakthrough for Mr. Akutu and his family.

Apart from multiplying cassava, Mr. Akutu is also a prominent processor of High Quality Cassava Chips (HQCC) using a chipper he acquired through the CAVA II Project. “I have bigger dreams. I want to establish a cassava factory in Amuria because today, we have a lot of farmers that have taken to farming cassava on bigger pieces of land. Now, with all this cassava, why can’t I, Akutu, set up a cassava factory for it? Smiles Akutu.

Mr. Akuttu has also expressed interest inpurchasing the inflatable mobile solar dryer for his processed cassava chips. He intends to work closely with the CAVA II Uganda project team at AfrII, to get this new technology.

Mr. Akutu and his wife (with head scarf) join in on the work to peel cassava for processing HQCC

The Africa Innovations Institute (AfrII), through its Commodity Value Chains Programme is implementing the CAVA II Project which is promoting commercialization of cassava through the uptake of High Quality Cassava Flour (HQCF) into high end markets within Uganda.

The HQCF, is a versatile highly competitive cassava product being promoted for use by industries in Uganda and other African countries including Tanzania, Malawi, Nigeria and Ghana.

C: AVA II Uganda intends to create an annual demand for 69,030 tons of fresh cassava roots by 2019 by increasing smallholder farmers’ cassava productivity, expanding and developing cassava processing and expanding cassava product options, market opportunities and geographies.

The C: AVA II project is also being implemented by 4 other countries of Nigeria, Tanzania, Ghana, and Malawi.

He has also purchased 120 acres of land at his home on which he intends to multiply more of NaROCASS 1 and NaSE 14 cassava varieties.

‘I want to multiply more of the SimSim 2 variety starting this year’- Olot David

Mr. Olot David is an oil seeds farmer from Agweng Sub-county in Lira District. He is 62 years old and his wife, Hellen Akullu is 52 years old. The couple is blessed with 10 surviving children.

As a prominent oil seed farmer, Mr. Olot was one of the 8 host farmers selected to participate in the experimental trials. He has embraced the new technologies extended to him through the Sesame Project to increase his yield.

After partaking in the trial experiments, Mr. Olot this year plans to grow more of the Simsim 2 (Sesim 2) variety on his 5acre piece of land in Agweng. He accounts his observations of the crop on the field; “Sesim 2 performed very well in the field. The variety has given good yield compared to the others” remarks Olot.

The trial experiments extended to him through AfrII’s Sesame Project dubbed ‘Stabilizing Sesame Yields and Production in the Lango region, Northern Uganda’ have helped him appreciate the use of fertilizer for higher yields.

“This Sesim 2 on which fertilizer was applied is really good and has high tolerance to pests and diseases, and also when sprayed, it gives a better yield” adds Olot. “When I weighed, the yield samples of the Sesim 2 variety, showed that the yield on which fertilizer was applied was 3.5 kgs, while that on which no fertilizer was applied weighed 2.9kgs which proves the need to multiply more of this variety” adds Olot.

The money he will earn from the harvest will be used for school fees and also acquiring more land to expand his farming plans. He also plans to supply good seed to his fellow farmers within and across the region.

He advised fellow Oil Seed farmers to practice good agronomic practices like planting their seeds in rows for this helps in easy weeding, and also gives reasonable yield. On adoption of improved varieties, he further advised them to concentrate on farming improved seed rather than the local variety as this is badly affected by drought, and also pests and diseases like gall midge and Webworm.

Apart from Simsim (Sesame), Mr. Olot also farms other crops like Maize, Soya Beans, and Sunflower. He has been actively engaged in farming for 42 years and this has seen him acquire land in Lira town on which he constructed 2 buildings, one of which is used for rentals. He also acquired land in Agweng town and constructed a building that houses his Agro-Input Dealers business.

He is currently the Chairperson of Agweng Farmers Cooperative Society that comprises 1228 farmers of which 30% are women.