By Yiiki Kaleb

Arua

A farmer dealing in seedlings business in Arua city has shared how he started this two year old flourishing farm, challenges along the way and his success story. Kaleb Yiiki caught up with Richard Lematia the owner of Lem’s farms.

Q: What Technologies do you use to raise seedlings for Sale throughout the Year?
A: One of the Technologies we have to embrace is greenhouse Technology; because, with this Technology, you have a protected environment where you can be able to grow highly performing crops free from pests. Also, to grow the crops throughout the Year, we embraced Irrigation Technology.

Q: What materials can be used to construct a green house?  
A: You can use a strong treated wooden poles or Metallic Poles for the Frames whereas for the Cover, you use the Ultra Violet (UV) plastic and the insect Netting Specifically Designed for Green house Construction.   

Q: tell us how much it would cost an interested farmer to construct a green house.
 A: depending on the size of the green house, for us here we first installed a 6X3 Meter Greenhouse which cost us 3 million Shillings using wooden Poles. The second Green House we installed measures 15X8 meters with a metallic structure and that one costs 15 million. 

 
Lematia Richard in the 15X8 meter Greenhouse
 
Q: How do you raise seedlings for sale?
A: We use soilless media which is a special Media, sterile and free from diseases and it’s formulated only for Seedlings. The Seedlings are also raised in the trays that carry about 200 Seedlings per tray and the seedlings are not in direct contact with the Soil.  This Technology makes us produce High Quality and Uniform Seedlings that once transplanted in the Soil, will perform to the maximum

Q: with a long dry spell experience in the region, how do you manage to get water for irrigation.
A: We manually dug a shallow well and at the Beginning we were using Bucket to scoop water from the well. Later on we hired a manually operated foot pump, to pick water from the well and pump into the garden. After some time, we then acquired a petrol fuel powered water pump. So we now use this Pump to pick water from the Well to a 5000 Liters water tank and from the tank the water is evenly distributed through out to the crops through the Pipe System that have been Installed.

Q: What Kind of irrigation scheme are you practicing?
A: We have zeroed down on Drip Irrigation System because it is the most efficient type of Irrigation system where even if you have very little water you can be able to deliver this water to each crop uniformly without wastage   in the field. Drip Irrigation uses special pipes called drip lines, and on those pipes there are water emitters, we also use the ordinary pipe to connect the water from the tank to the drip Lines. This Pipe Lines are available in Arua City.

Q: What Kind of Crop Seedlings do you raise for Sale?
A: For now we have specialized only in Vegetables, Spices and herbs Seedlings for Sale. These include Tomatoes (Pajama f1, Ascilla F1, Anso F1, Star F1, Sata F1, Terminator F1 Rambo F1 novels F1), Eggplants(Long Purple F1,Arjami F1,Femi f1), Cabbages (Gloria F1, Fanaka F1, and Queen F1), Spinach, Green paper, Sukumawiki (Kale), Spinach and Onions.

Q: How do you get the Seedlings ready for planting?
A: We can raise seedlings on order whereas some of them we raise them throughout the Year so that, a farmer can find them ready.  

Q: How does a farmer differentiate Good Seedlings from Bad ones?
A: First of All, there are a number of seed varieties from different Companies. Each of those Seeds have their performance parameters.  For a quality of seeds we look at: Disease resistance, yield Capacity per Crop Plant, Quality of Fruit that is it should have very good self-life where the fruit is supposed to last for more days at least 2-3 Weeks for the case of tomatoes. Lastly Consider the Source where you buy the Seeds from because there are so many quack sellers of seedlings outside there. But the only way we can be sure of a good quality Seed is when we buy our seedlings from a certified seed supplier.

Q: How many Farmers have you been able to supply and where?
A: We have been able to supply more than 300 farmers. We have Ever Sent Seedlings to other Locations like, Gulu, Lira, Nebbi, Moyo, Adjumani and even Arua District and the City.

Q: When your seedlings are not bought, what do you do with unbought seedlings?
A: We also do plant unbought seedlings. We have the Neighboring Community Gives used Land for planting these excess plants. But inside the farm we do plant the seedlings in the main field as demonstration for farmers who come into the farm to learn how to manage the seedlings when transplanted in the Field.

Q: How many people have you employed in your Business?
A: I have employed five permanent Workers, three Males and Two Females. 

COVER PHOTO: Lematia Richard in the 6X3 Green House By Yiiki Kaleb