The 3 Principles to Successful Agribusiness – Dr. Emma Naluyima
Dr Emma Naluyima’s 3 Principles to Successful Agribusiness Can Also Apply To Successful Allotments & Gardens (Depending On Your Objectives).
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Dr. Emma Naluyima, Uganda’s top female youth agripreneur, is a force of nature. She not only understands the circular nature of growing crops and animals but practises it on an acre of land.
Emma’s system includes chicken, cows, fish and crops in a system where each enterprise naturally integrates with the next. It sounds like farming but is actually the closest thing I’ve seen, on a small scale, that resembles the agricultural rotations that so many gardeners seem to think they should practice. Rotations need livestock to be be genuine and successful rotations!
There are several videos online that capture Dr Naluyima’s philosophy and I’ve only included two of them here. The first is her TED talk in Johannesburg. I include the key points below.
Integrated farming on a small scale
Emma practices integrated farming on her one-acre farm.
She believes that one doesn’t need large chunks of land to be a successful farmer.
Integrated farming involves using different components of the farm to support each other.
Emma highlights the cultural practices in Uganda where land is shared among family members after someone dies.
“I do dairy on my one-acre farm that I practice integrated farming many times.”
Dr Emma Naluyima
Using pig dung for chicken feed and soil production
Emma uses pig dung as a resource on her farm.
Flies lay eggs on the pig dung, which creates maggots.
The maggots are fed to the chickens, while some are left to multiply and produce compost.
This compost is then used to grow vegetables and sold to people in the city.
“I get nice juicy maggots from pig dung, which I feed my chickens.”Dr Emma Naluyima
Dr Emma Naluyima
Utilising cow dung for cooking fuel
Emma uses cow dung as an alternative to firewood and charcoal for cooking.
She puts the cow dung in an anaerobic digester, which produces biogas that can be used for cooking.
By using this method, Emma avoids contributing to deforestation and climate change.
“I use dung for the cows, and in the process, it produces biogas that I use to cook.”
Dr Emma Naluyima
Of course we don’t all have an acre of land to undertake anything as extensive as this. But the principles can be applied on a smaller scale.
The second video is Emma being interviewed about her approach.
here are several other posts about African growing methods on this site. They include topics such as Keyhole Gardens.
