Emma Naluyima is an Innovative Farmer born in Uganda and married with 4 children. Her ingenuity in farming and veterinary practices have earned her several awards both in Uganda and internationally.
As a smallholder farmer and a private veterinarian focusing on clinical medicine and herd health. I have previously worked for the National Animal Genetic Resources Centre and Data Bank and as an officer in Entebbe in charge of a Livestock Environmental Station. I have also worked for the President of the Republic of Uganda, H.E. YoweriKaguta Museveni, on his personal dairy farm to improve the genetics of his herd through artificial insemination. I have also served as the Chairman of Red Cross Mbarara. I have earned a Bachelor of Science in Veterinary Medicine and Master’s of Health Services Research from Makerere University in Kampala, Uganda.
- Vice Chairperson Green and Fresh farmer’s Cooperative.
- Chairman National multistate holder’s pig value chain platform.
- A 2015 Aspen New Voices Fellow.
Solving Food Insecurity
We need Increase food production. The biggest and most challenging aspect of food security is the support of agriculture farmers to produce the right amount of food in quantities with the right organic composition possible. As a world society, WE SHOULD STOP TAKING AGRICULTURE FOR GRANTED and start developing a consciousness of how food is produced, and the farmer’s necessities to keep producing edible and safe food for all. Farmers are challenged to find the right inputs to grow the foods.
Advice to the Youth
If you want to predict the future, change the present. You are the future of the world, so you must make sure you make a beautiful world for yourselves. Believe in yourselves. You are young and energetic. It is useless to think you are independent when you actually ask for food handouts. Get up and produce your own food. This is what I learned from my granddad. Prepare for 60 at 16, prepare for 70 at 17 or prepare for 80 at 18. This means starting early. Let us not wait to work and make wonders when we are old. The best time of our years is between 16 and 35.
Emma's Approach
Everyone needs to eat. I am a small holder farmer growing different kinds of food and keeping different kinds of animals on a small scale to produce food for home consumption and sale. The dung from the animals can also be as a form of energy and manure to grow our food. I also teach other people how to farm on a small scale and produce more. We also have a school, MST Junior School with a bias to agriculture for the children so that they can learn and appreciate agriculture.
Unique Life Experience
I went to a boarding primary school when I was seven years old. We used to go to the school garden at eight years. All the food we ate at the school was cultivated by the students. During the holidays I used to go to my grandparents and practice what I had learned at school. When the things I planted grew, my grandmother used to sell them, and she gave me the money. It taught me the benefits of farming and the value of money.