By Hope Mafaranga
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| Elengo training his worker how to use the machine |
When we left the camp in 2006, we had
nothing to turn to as most of our houses, crops and animals were destroyed by
the 20 year old of the war of the Lord Resistance Army (LRA) and one had to
think out of the box to ensure his family survives.
The memories of the LRA seems fresh in the
mind of Patrick Alengo, 50 , a resident of Onil Village, in Aloi sub-county,
Alebtong district.
He remembers the suffering as if it just
happened yesterday. Alengo a father of seven and a catechist at St Nichols,
Awiny said, when they returned from the camps, they had nothing to feed their
children on and had no shelter at all.
“We use to live on aid from
non-government organisations and life was a nightmare. I had to do something
extra ordinary to sustain my family,” he said.
An
opener
He said one day, he attended a meeting
organised by Care international which was intended to sensitising war returnees
about food security and it opened his eyes.
He said the meeting restored hope in him
and started thinking about farming as he used to do before the war broke out.
His family like any other affected by
war, was living in Aloi internal displaced persons camps. However his family
returned when peace prevailed in 2006.
Upon coming back from the meeting,
Alengo sat his wife Florence Adong down and decided to utilise their land to
grow food for the family and also grow for sell to other war returnees.
“I started growing beans, maize and
ground nuts for home consumption and I would sell the surplus to other people
for little money,” he said.
As the region stabilised, Alengo was
among the few farmers, that were growing food and he was invited to the Aloi
sub-county headquarters for a farmer’s meeting.
He said during the meeting, they were told to
focus on growing crops that will generate income and uplift the standards of
their living.
How he started
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| Alengo shows off some of his cassava |
He said the meeting discussed a number
of crops that could help farmers make money and one that caught his eye was
cassava growing.
In 2007, again he sat his wife down and
made a decision to sell the seven cows they got brought using the money from
the maize, ground nuts and beans to open the first of land for cassava growing.
Growing cassava
Alengo who inherited 500 acres of land
from his father, started with 12 acres in 2007 when peace was returning to the
region and he has gradually upscale to 250 acres.
Value
addition
He
acquired chips cutting machines which he used to cut cassava in small pieces
which helps to dry the cassava and now sells to Mbale, Lira and Kenya.
He said the machine has the capacity of
crushing over 5000 kilogrammes a day and because they are in small pieces it
dries faster and reduces on the risk of rotting especially during rain session.
He also said the machine reduces the
level of contamination since few hands touch the cassava.
The machine is sold at sh 8.5m in agro input
shops and uses only three liters of fuel every day.
Community
involvement
After leaning the skills, Alengo saw the
need of sharing with other members of the community and he started Aneni Can Mega cluster group of 99 members .
The group has 56 women and 43 men. He said one of the reasons of why they
started a group, they wanted to get market for their cassava, fight food insecurity
and increase on household income.
Market
Alengo’s support is among the over 8,000
members trained by International Fertisers Development Center (IFDC) and the
organisation also linked them to market.
He said they now sell cassava cuttings
to Operation wealth creation and NAADs and sell the tubers to the organisation
that makes ethanol.
Future plans
He plans to buys a tractor at sh130m to easy
his farming activities and currently he has sh 525m on his account which he
wants to buy a bus.
“I want to venture into transport
business in order to expand on his business empire,” he said.
He also wants to educate all his seven
children and nine orphans he picked during the war he is taking care of up to
University.
“When I picked those kids , I chose to
be their father and I wanted to give them a permanent home . I will take care
of them until the end,” he said.
Inspiration
The last born out 10 and the son of Fenekansi
Eyit and Norah Abiri, Alengo, was inspired by the suffering of war and wanted
to keep his father’s legacy.
“Being the only boy in a family of 10, I
knew that all my sisters would get married and I needed to keep the family
going as a man,” he said.
Advice
He advised the youth to come back after
school and engage in farming. He says this is the only sure way of creating jobs
and fighting unemployment.
He urged the youth to stop giving excuses and
wasting time in gambling and betting but come back start with the smallest land
they have to engage in commercial farming.
“There is money in farming because
people will never stop eating, there is ready market for food crop and youth
should come back to dig,” he said.
He advised farmers to stop subsistence farming
but put their energies in commercial farming, to get money.
Alengo said that farmers also need to
exercise some patience so that they can get the best yield out of their
gardens.
The
growth
According to
Alengo, in one acre of cassava, a farmer
needs to invest in sh 120,000 for ploughing,
buy five bags of cassava cutting
at sh 50,000, sh 50,000 for weeding and sh 80,000 for planting, which
comes to sh 300,000.
He said one acre of land is capable of giving
a farmer sh 6m from the cutting and sh 5m from tubers.
Labor
He employs 10 permanent staff at his
farm who he pays between sh 80,000 to 150,000 and gives them other incentives
like food, cassava cutting and recommends them for trainings in cassava
growing.
When the weed is too much, he also hires
prisoners about 40 every day and at cost of sh 4,000 each.
Challenges
His biggest challenges are weather
related which he has nothing to do about them.
“ Aleptong sometimes floods and when
it’s a dry session, it dries so much that we lose our crops,” he said.
Achievement
Stabilising and picking the pieces from
the camp is one of the most significant achievement Alengo mentions.
Being able to get market outside Uganda,
educating his children, expanding his farming and becoming popular are some of
the significant gains he has attained.
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