As several university officials in Uganda remain idle at home but earning monthly salary, Mrs. Proscovia Nakirya Uromcamu, the Human Resource Officer of Kyambogo University has found passion in farming. The mother of three, who is married to Godfrey Uromcamu has other passions like , Fashion, supporting orphans, the needy and widows.
According to Nakirya, the lockdown came to her as a surprise and with many restrictions but she chose to look at the positive side of things. She added that the COVID-19 lockdown happened when her family had just moved into their newly constructed flat.
“Lockdown, to me has been my best holiday with family. Time to learn Christian songs with the children, time to even share the word of God more, time to organize my new home, time to bond with my new born baby now 9months, time for nutritional juicing, time for baking and a lot of cookery, improving communication with my husband, time to work together with him and children, time to discover our children gifts and struggles, time to watch them do homework, time to dance, sing and do early prayer alter as family with ample time for devotion, time to preach the word of God through my whatsApp status, time to visit the farm, time to do Christian Girl talks, time to fast and pray, time to do backyard gardening and personal reflections.” Nakirya narrated.
Nakirya also revealed that her husband advised her to start farming using the small space behind their house. She gathered old car tyres and sacks, filled them with black soil mixed with manure to plant her crops. She started with vegetables including; Malakwang, Dodo, Gobe and Otigo and later planted Irish Potatoes.
According to Nakirya, her home gardening was purely guided by nutritional living as evidenced by the crops she decided to grow.
“Gardening was not in my mind but my husband encouraged me. What motivated me to grow more was seeing the first greens germinating very well. Everyone at home fell in love with the tyre garden, so the children with their father took over the watering project and it got exciting each day. I grew more Lettuces, Beetroots, Carrots, eggplants, green peppers, red and yellow peppers, celeries, parsleys, okras, cauliflowers, broccolis, corianders and Cucumbers.” Nakirya narrates.
“I then later bought strawberries, Rosemary, Vine, stevia, Ntula, Jobyo, Pomegranates and Mango seedlings.” Nakirya added.
Nakirya, who plans to plant for commercial purposes when she retires expects to harvest by end of July since most of her crops take 3 months to mature especially Irish Potatoes, beetroot and carrots. Apparently, they have already eaten the greens that were planted first.
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