Abstract:
This report contains and describes the activities implemented, skills and qualifications gained, challenges faced during the farm and community practice, conclusion of the report and recommendations derived from the challenges faced at Soroti city Local Government. The objective of this farm and community 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 practice, I was attached to the department of both crop and animal production. This was followed by orientation where I was first introduced to the areas where we had to carry out the selected activities, then we drafted a schedule for activities to be done depending on the groups we had been told to create among ourselves. Supplying of seeds to farmers’ groups, carrying out germination tests, meat inspection at Soroti city abattoir and Arapai market, vaccination of farmer's birds in different wards, collection of data from drug and agro shops on items sold in different parishes and wards. These activities have made me to gain a lot of skills and knowledge like; identifying parasitic and disease cases in animals meant for slaughter, role of meat inspection, skills in general management of animals, knowing which seeds are viable and good enough to supply to farmers, entry of data into the computer, communication skills and confidence in training farmers on management of birds, During farm and community practice, I also faced some challenges like; poor mobilization of the farmer, unfavourable weather conditions during data collection on drug shops, limited transport means for field work in the production department. In conclusion all the activities were implemented and farm 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 line 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.
