Vegetable Production

The second year Bachelor of Agriculture students are working with 21 farmers as part of their vegetable production course work. There are 10 vegetable crops being grown both by the students and by the farmers. This is an annual event.

National Agricultural Advisory Services (NAADS) provision

The Faculty is encouraging its staff to participate in National Agricultural Advisory Service (NAADS) activities as an avenue to disseminate technologies developed at the faculty. A number of staff have responded to the call for service provision for National Agricultural Advisory Service (NAADS) in the districts of Gulu and Amuru through bidding and technical proposal development. Two are being carried out under this arrangement viz Cassava and Upland rice technology promotion in Patiko and Palaro sub-counties of Gulu District.

University-Farmer-Extension Partnership in Agricultural Development

The Faculty identifies and engages willing farmers within a 10km radius of the University as partners in the training of agricultural graduates. This project is codenamed “University–Farmer–Extension Partnership” and it aims at:

• Establishing strong linkages between farmers, the University and the Extension Agencies,
• Setting up field practical laboratories for training and research,
• Increasing agricultural production potential of the region.

The use of Solar Energy to add value to fruits and vegetables

Fruits and vegetables are a very important component of the human diet. They are a ready source of vitamins, minerals, energy and dietary fibre. They also play a very significant role in trade and income generation for commercial farmers and dealers. However, the seasonal nature of the fresh produce, greatly limits their contribution to human nutrition and income generation. The Faculty is implementing a project that promotes solar drying of fruits and vegetables. The project aimed at designing an appropriate solar dryer for use in the rural areas; constructing the model dryers at the University; setting up a functional pilot centre for drying of fruits and vegetables at University; and carrying out research on solar dried foods.

The project has already reached full speed of implementation. The staff at the Faculty of Agriculture and environment has been fully involved in the training of artisans through out all the stages of project implementation, from the dryer construction to the actual process of drying fruits. The project has moved ahead to the stage of packaging and branding of the final products. Solar dried products are hitting the shelves of local stores. The local population is very excited with the products and are consuming them enthusiastically.

Indigeneous African Livestock Improvement Programme

Very little has been done to improve the indigenous African livestock through selection and breeding. Animal breeders find it cheaper to improve local stock through introduction of exotic genes by cross breeding and selection. The good genes in the indigenous stock are likely to disappear because of competition from the exotic high performance stock. The exotic breed from Europe and elsewhere were not the creation of God but rather a product of science and technology and business. It is therefore important to improve our existing stock to improve on their growth rate and productivity. To this effect, in pursuit of its vision of transformation of the rural communities, Gulu University has embarked on improvement of indigenous African livestock through selection and breeding. This preserves and concentrates the positive attributes of the indigenous livestock that will offer them competitive advantage to the exotic breed. The intervention would result into development of local breeds of high protein-yielding livestock per environment unit.

The Students Supervised Enterprise Project (SSEP)

As a partial requirement for graduation, students develop a bankable project proposal, complete with a business plan. Under this programme codenamed “Students Supervised Enterprise Project (SSEP)” the graduate gets the opportunity to consolidate the technical and practical experience in production, business management, marketing and book keeping in an agribusiness enterprise. This project certainly offers an opportunity to the graduate improve their ability to plan and successfully run an agribusiness. This is intended to inspire these graduates into self employment in the agricultural sector.