Growing up, Esther Kyambadde had a passion for farming and went on to pursue it through various short courses offered by civil society organizations key among them Caritas Kampala. To her farming is not just a source of livelihood but defines action of her revolves around farming. A variety of plants and livestock cover her homestead situated on less than 1 acre piece of land in Kijjabijjo village, Wakiso district.
She picked the passion from her late dad who owned large banana plantation and kept cattle and local chickens.
“I the way he dispensed milk to our neighbors every day, in the morning an evening. He was also a popular farmer whose name caught the attention of everyone in the village because of the way he used to do farming. As a young girl, Imade a personal commitment to do farming and bring solutions to other farmers,” she says.
After acquiring land, Esther was introduced to Abagalana Farmers’ Group in 2007 and she started receiving agricultural training sessions by Caritas Kampala.
” I decided to quit my tailoring job and give more time to my own farming projects as a manager because i had seen gold in farming,” She says. She also received a Trainer of Trainees course by Caritas Kampala which ignited her zeal to train other community members. Her place is portioned into residential and mixed urban farming projects. She uses her balcony as a classroom for other community members/farmers.
Through offering training services to the community members, she discovered that in urban centers, the market was readily available for organic vegetables and yet so many people were not properly utilizing their space for commercial purpose. “I decided to train people on how to utilize their small space for urban farming.” For that reason, she is often in and out her home offering training services to several farmers.
That is exactly what inspired her to start urban farming at her home and be a doer of what she preaches. “Mine is a mixed urban farm with kitchen gardens where I grow vegetables and sell them to other community members who don’t grow them,” she says.
She runs her farming project with her family where her 5 children and husband are the source of labor. She sub-contracts extra labor force when children go back to school. She farms lavender, lemon balm and rosemary among other medical plants.
Esther mixes the soil she uses in her potted plants with compost to give them vigor while growing.
Home- made fertilizers.
She says she mixes sun dust (olusenyente), compost manure and black soil in a corresponding proportion and then puts the mixture in bags which serve as vegetable.
She built an irrigation system around her farm which ensures constant flow of water especially during dry spells. Apart from the plant which are planted st the entrance to her home with the aim of attracting potential clients, other plants are fenced off from the public view as a way of providing physical security
