On my farm I have so many things, starting with the plantation. I have different types of bananas, different types of vegetables: sukumawiki, murere, miro, pumpkin which is used as a fruit and a vegetable (the leaves), muchicha, peas, and cowpeas. Fruits: mangos, oranges. Trees: eucalyptus, cyprus, wattle. I also grow maize and beans.

I have animals. 5 cattle: 2 bulls, Faro and Maritati; 2 heifers Mahua and Murembo; and a milking cow, Bahati. I have one dog, Box and one cat, Meow. I also have ducks, hens and 3 sheep.

I live with my family of 6: myself, my wife Irene, and my children Joy, Vahid, Rama, and Zinus.

At the center I’ve learned so many things. I personally have learned about agriculture. In agriculture I have learned about crop farming. Before you start farming, you have to know the quality of the soil and the fertilizer to use and how to prepare fertilizer from manure and different types of crops and how to determine the season that is appropriate for a certain plant. I’ve also learned about water harvest. I’ve also learned about beekeeping, dairy animals, different breeds of dairy animals, which breeds are suitable, and how to change the indigenous animals to a better breed using artificial insemination. I’ve learned how to feed and manage the animals, different feeds to have at home so that you have a good system for feeding your cows, e.g., napier grass that I have planted and Boma Rhodes. I have also learned about poultry keeping and different types of chickens, how to manage them, different types of diseases that attack chickens and how to treat them and different types of medicine to use, how to build a house for the chickens, the position for the house, etc.

I have learned generally about farm management, how to use the things I had before, but was not using them, like manure from animals. What should be grown when and so on. I’ve become a manager on my farm.

I have also learned about computer services, like how to access the Internet, etc.

I used to buy fertilizer, but I learned how to make manure, so now I’m using manure to avoid so many chemicals in my plants and food. The waste from the sheep mixed with cow waste makes a very high quality fertilizer.

I am trying to improve the quality of the animals I have to get more milk and to get more out of my animals.

I’ve become a serious farmer for poultry. I’ve built a house for the chickens. I’m intending to purchase 20 hens (now I have 10) for eggs and chick to sell. I’ve also keeping ducks and am intending to buy more, and also have some geese.

For my plantation, in 5 years I’m dedicated to not using fertilizer and only use organic fertilizer from manure.

My vision for the future is to have pure dairy animals from what I have learned. I am practicing at home so that in 5 years I’ll be a pure dairy farmer. I’ll be a chicken keeper. I’ve change from what I am now to a different person in life because of what I am learning.

There are so many other things to talk about. Not just myself but also for the whole community. I personally am so glad to have this centre that has connected me to so many people of the world and for getting friends from Canada. I’m also eager to visit Canada and to learn more from my friends in Canada. It has also changed my lifestyle and understanding towards different races and towards different people from different countries. To the community as a whole, the centre has assisted the community for it has given the community different supports. We had learning, training for ladies on the topic of leadership. Ladies were so impressed and happy. It is also training farmers who are learning a lot from the center and are very happy for it. I am hoping the stakeholders will continue feeding them with all their needs. We appreciate what the stakeholders are doing for the community.

The community is also benefitting from the agriculture that’s taking place at the center, especially from the plantation of vegetables. The community is taking vegetables from the center, which is a very good thing.

I’m also happy for the initiation of the Lugari Rotary Club which is really educating the community and Rotary Club members on so many things that they did not know before and on how to assist the entire community. The motto being, “Service before self.”

As we have the Rotary Club trying to assist people with different needs, we need a home built around the center to take care of our friends. It would be so good if we had a home where they could learn skills and counsel them and guide them. So many ladies, so many boys who are idlers – if you can create something at the center to keep them busy, this will change the community as a whole. If you can have lessons on how to keep peace in the community and the world, I think it will assist the community and the world.

I really appreciate the agriculture training because it’s really changing the lifestyle of the community. You will already see  big difference between the farmers from before to now. The center is making big changes in the community.

Your friends who read about the resource center are so welcome with their support and advice and to learn more through the Internet or by visiting the center personally. You are very highly welcomed.