Last Updated on: 1st August 2023, 12:31 pm
Gulu I A top musician from Northern Uganda has urged fellow musicians to embrace agriculture as an alternative income source.
Erick Opoka aka Ezzy Lyrical Zino says by undertaking agriculture, one should practice innovation and technologies to respond to the emerging challenges of climate change.
Ezzy spoke to TND News during the five-day regional agricultural exhibition in Gulu city which ended on Sunday, July 31. The exhibitions brought together close to 150 agribusiness entities that showcased innovations and technology of farming.
The agriculture show was organized by Uganda Forum for Agricultural Advisory Services (UFAAS) in partnership with the Bank of Uganda and Gulu University, among other partners.
Erick Opoka started venturing into poultry farming in 2023. He rears chicken at his farm in Koro sub-country in Gulu district. He says the project is an alternative way of earning income to sustain life.
He decided to do poultry farming after realizing that music would not “last longer can expire in some years”. He tells this publication he started with over 200 birds and today they have multiplied to over 2,000 birds.
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“The amount of money I earn from poultry farming is double the income I earn from music,” he says, “I’m doing music just for the love,” he adds.
To all the youths and local farmers in northern Uganda, he appeals to them to take charge and venture into agriculture while adopting new ideas of farming and being good innovators to earn more income.
“We need to preserve indigenous knowledge and mitigate the effects of climate change. This region [Northern Uganda] has a comparative advantage when it comes to land and can walk away from poverty with new agricultural innovations,” Erick noted.
Grace Munisami, the General Secretary of the Forum, noted that there is a need for farmers to embrace innovations for improved crop production.
He further explained that the lack of agricultural extension services is a setback to most of the farmers in the rural areas in northern Uganda since they have limited knowledge of innovation and agroecology.
He added that annual agriculture shows could help to bring farmers under one platform while aiming to promote local farmers to venture into the use of organic fertilizers to yield production and save the environment.