Abstract:
Farm and community practice (BSA 2209) is one of the examinable modules done in Busitema University, Faculty of agriculture for the period of 8 weeks by students pursuing a Bachelor of Science in agriculture. It exposes the student to the farmers from whom he or she learns from it and also the farmers learn from the student, giving the students a hands-on experience in farm and community practice and farming in general by giving them an opportunity to stay in the community during the outreach period. The 8 weeks of farm and community practice were carried out at Soroti district local government where I got exposure to fields such as crop production, community-based services, and administration. Participatory discussions, Demonstration methods, and observation were methods used to obtain information from the farmers during farm and community practice attachment such as crop spacing, disease symptoms, and pest infestation. Various tools were used which include; flip charts, markers, training manuals, and others. Various activities were carried out such as orientation, mobilization, parasites and disease identification, training, seed germination testing, watering of the planted seeds, seedlings inspection, office work, and others. I acquired skills such as agricultural routine activities, identification of problems in farms and communities concerning production, talking to farmers, identification of different mango, citrus, groundnuts, maize, cassava, and beans varieties, use of agrochemicals, disease diagnosis, and so on. Some challenges were also encountered in the course of farm and community practice such as transport and inadequate farm tools. However, some Recommendations were highlighted to the university and the district to mitigate the challenges encountered such as the purchase of more farm tools to allow students to carry out practical activities on time, the need for timely preparation of the timetable to enable students to complete their activities in time. The work plan of farm and community practice, List of References, and field photos are attached at the end of the report. In conclusion, farm and community practice were very useful to me because I was able to obtain practical skills such as talking to farmers and differentiating varieties which skills will improve agricultural production.
