East-West Seed Knowledge Transfer > News > Stories from the Field > Setting the Stage for a Successful Harvest with Production Planning
Dark Mode

Setting the Stage for a Successful Harvest with Production Planning

Posted On: November 28, 2021

By Kalisto Afayo, a longtime farmer in the Northern Region of Uganda.

Kalisto Afayo measuring the area to build a raised bed in his field

NORTHERN REGION, UGANDA — I have been in the farming industry for over 26 years. Before being enrolled by East-West Seed Knowledge Transfer Foundation (EWS-KT) as a key farmer, I was using my own knowledge, and l didn’t know anything about production planning. 

I had a lot of farming losses, including seedling loss, because I would sow more seed than the field would accommodate. I used to buy seeds in a pack, not considering the quantity I would actually need in my field. I would then go ahead and sow the seeds, without estimating the plant population required. 

During transplanting, I would only plant what would be enough for the field. The rest of the seedlings would overgrow in the nursery and not be productive. Having learned production planning from EWS-KT, I now know that you first have to consider the field measurements, which guide you to approximate the plant population. 

This knowledge about production planning has really helped me to minimize seed wastage and seedling loss. At first, I complained to the EWS-KT Technical Field Officer that the seed they provided was not enough, but now I know how much seed is required for any given field. I also share this knowledge with the rest of my community members, who come to me to learn.

Nutrition and Income Generation Intervention (NIGI) improves access to and consumption of nutritious crops and increases income for refugees and hosts in refugee settlement areas in the West Nile Region of Uganda. This project is co-funded by Netherlands Embassy Uganda and is managed by EWS-KT in collaboration with Wageningen Centre for Development Innovation.