Abstract:
Outreach is one of the course modules done at: Busitema University Arapai Campus aimed at equipping students with practical skills and exposing them to working conditions in specific courses studied. The University sends students to the nearby village farmers around the University to do extension work. I carried out my outreach, in Arapai A village Arapai Sub County, Soroti District; the main aim was to acquire hands-on skills and experience in farm and community practice to get exposed to various farm enterprises and cultural beliers, behaviors, norms and agricultural community interactions, Outreach is one of the course modules done at Busitema University Arapai Campus, whereby the university sends, students to nearby Village famers around the university to do extension work. It was for a period of six weeks beginning from Friday March .2021 up to Friday 16th April.2021.
While in the field, l tirelessly conducted number of farm activities, training of farmers, raising of nursery bed, cleaning or the animal unit, Creation of simple irrigation facility, digging of rubbish pit, Tick identification in the animals, Animal treatment and disease control, Management practices in banana production, Construction of plate stands, Orchard management, data collection and field monitoring. I as a student acquired a number of achievements like punctuality, communication skills. The field was characterized by poor response by the farmers, most farmers never had capital to purchase seeds and drug, inadequate tools.
The university and the government of Uganda should put more effort in sensitization of farmers on benefits of agriculture, more field officers and extensionists should be put in place. In fact, the training was a good experience and the students gained a lot of hands-on. I was able to correlate classroom knowledge to practical experiences on field.
The outreach was successfully conducted because of the much practical knowledge that I got. However, there is a lot needed to improve the agriculture sector as there is still how production therefore there is need to greatly improve to modern farming practices and also adoption of sustainable agriculture.
