Farm and community practice carried out at Bukwo district local government.

Abstract

Farm and community practice is one of the course modules in the faculty of agriculture and animal sciences of Busitema university. it is an outreach program aimed at acquainting students with experience and skill in interacting with farmers both in the rural and urban setting understanding and appreciating the challenges they face and proposing remedial measures. This report is a summary of the activities implemented, skills and qualifications gained, challenges faced during the community practice, conclusion of the report and recommendations derived from the challenges that face the farming communities in Kapkoros sub county, Bukwo District Local Government. The objective of this community practice is to make students benefit from the skills and knowledge gained from the fields, apply the knowledge they get from the classroom in the field and build confidence in the students, During the engagement, I was attached to the department of crop production under supervision of the district senior agricultural officer. This was followed by orientation where I was first introduced to the district, sub-county. With the help of the sub county chief, I was introduced to different department under production such as entomology, animal and fisheries. And later I implemented the activities such as; land preparation, enterprise monitoring, agricultural statistics, farm visits, training on parish development model, seed and seedling distribution, climate smart agriculture sustainable land management for coffee. Training of farmers group on animal traction and land preparation, Training of farmers on land management in all the parishes. These activities has made me to gain a lot of skills and knowledge, skills in skills in general management of crops, communication skills and confidence in training farmers on animal and crop management, During the community engagement, I also faced some challenges like; poor mobilization of the farmer, lack of equipment at the Sub County, limited transport means for field working the production department and poor turn up of the farmers to the training. In conclusion all the activities were implemented and community practice was carried out successfully. I was able to gain a lot from it. I was in position of getting practical skills and knowledge in Ime with my career and relating with people in the field. The technical advice that I provided addressed farmers' problem and needs, Much as all were successfully done, there were also some little challenges which hindered the smooth running of the activities making me recommend that proper mobilization of farmers must improve for the training programs to solve problems of poor turn up during such activities ,government should also increase the number of motorcycles to solve transport problems and more equipment and soil testing services to be installed so that farming is done efficiently.