Juliet Okaasai, the wife to State Minister for Energy, who also doubles as the Kumi County MP, Sidronius Okaasai Opolot, takes our reporter around her farm. In the background is her turmeric garden
By Milton Emmy Akwam
Farming is a lucrative business that can financially transform households, communities and the country at large.
A number of high profile Ugandans are increasingly taking on farming to supplement their incomes. Others are joining farming as the ideal retirement business.
Juliet Okaasai, a retired secondary teacher wants to make a mark in turmeric and piggery farming. She has set up a burgeoning farm in Osioda South Division, Kumi Municipality.
Juliet, the wife to State Minister for Energy, who also doubles as the Kumi County MP, Sidronius Okaasai Opolot, says she started farming as a “hobby” in 2021 and later realized she can turn it into a money-making business.
She says she started with Shs400,000. She used part of the capital to buy one sack of tubers for half an acre. She also used at least shs100, 000 for garden preparation, planting and other essentials.
“I have been trying different crops, among them I happened to find turmeric and planted half an acre,” she says in an interview with our reporter, adding that when it matured, she was not able to harvest it after the season.
“It went on for a second season and harvested it thereafter. Ï chose to crash it locally to produce powder,” Juliet says, adding that with the help of two women, she bought a mortar and they were able to start pounding turmeric to produce powder.
She then invited some people including neighbours to interest them in her finished product.
“We got some buyers, but business did not pick up as fast as we [had] thought,” she recalls.
Because she didn’t get the market as fast as she needed, she reduced the turmeric plantation to a quarter an acre while planning for marketing.
She then went bigger the following season.
“I started supplying supermarkets and some people helped me sell around and I realised some bit of money and planted a larger acreage the following season,” she says.
Aware that using a rudimentary method to produce the powder was a bit difficult and tedious, she decided to get a small machine [grinder] at Shs1m.
Looking into the future, Juliet says she’s hoping to get a better machine to help her produce turmeric powder to meet the market demand.
Why Turmeric
On why she has chose to do turmeric and add value to it, she says: “I did some research and realized that turmeric has got many health benefits. It is not very common and many people don’t even know about it and its associated benefits.”
Turmeric — and especially its most active compound, curcumin — have many scientifically proven health benefits, such as the potential to improve heart health and prevent against Alzheimer’s and cancer. It’s a potent anti-inflammatory and antioxidant. It may also help improve symptoms of depression and arthritis.
She says marketing her well-packaged brand has been a challenge. Juliet is however hopeful as she continues to research on the best marketing strategies.
Before starting her turmeric enterprise, she recalls that there were “so many” people in the area growing turmeric.
With more than ten families growing the same crop, she says: “we can be able to pull up production and add value to this wonderful crop.”
She also believes that more people will come on board and that would be a big boost for her in terms of getting raw materials when she starts large-scale production soon.
She says a pack of 200gm of turmeric goes for Shs10, 000, 50gm at Shs3, 500 and 500gm is sold at Shs20, 000.
“The moment I break through with market, I know everyone will get on board. Right now, it is the marketing issue that is why I need to invest more. More energy needs to be invested in finding the market,” she says.
Piggery Project
Juliet is also actively doing piggery among other ventures.
With more than 30 piglets and a dozen adults, the retired teacher is sure of income while doing what she likes to transform the communities around her.
During the tour of her piggery grange, she told our reporter that for better meat without too much fats, she feeds the pigs vegetables, especially sweet potato leaves.
She describes the sweet potato leaves as “very healthy” and “our pigs will not have a lot of fats because of the greens they are fed on.”
