Photo Story by Kataryna Tuzhyk 2022

Farm Management Data - Practice Oriented Approach for an Innovative Practice Oriented Training of Students. Case study Mountains of the Moon University, Uganda

Experiences of the last years showed, that students of agrarian universities need more practice oriented training to be well prepared for their future job demands. Based on the experiences to collect farm data with students for educational and research issues in Ukraine (UFMD project established in 2018 and supported by the German Federal Ministry of Food and Agriculture), the HSWT University supports African partner universities to establish on farm data collection.

One of the partner universities is the University Mountains of the Moon in Uganda. For the assessment and planning of farms activities, a sound understanding of the economic estimation of production processes is essential. Although state statistic is often used, the high aggregation and the unsecure data quality of is often not sufficient for the educational purposes. As a result the lack of appropriate farm data or information at the level of production processes is not appropriate for the educational process and does not lead to a sound understanding of farm business and production reality. 

The idea of farm data collection is that university is closely cooperating with all stakeholders, particularly with farms. The data collected are treated anonymous. The target is to obtain reliable information for farm business analysis as well as a closer cooperation between universities and the agro business. The collection of farm data is part of the study process and carried out with experienced lecturers who supervise students. This is also of specific importance to receive reliable data to analyze and understand impact of climate change on the farming in the country and to develop strategies to react.

Photo 1: Students and coordinators of the farm data collection, Ruwenzori region Uganda, March 2022.

Photo 2: Village in Ruwenzori region, Uganda March 2022.

Photo 3: The farmers’ fields in steep area and erosion problems in the Ruwenzori region, Uganda March 2022.

Photo 4: Boys are taking care about cows, village closed to the mountains, Uganda March 2022.

Photo 5: Farmers are selling the products on the local market, Fort Portal Uganda, March 2022.

Photo 6: The brick production as an additional family income, village in Uganda 2022.

Photo 7: House of a big farmer with around 12 acres of land, Uganda 2022.

Photo 8: Student of the University Mountains of the Moon collecting on farm data about farming and impact of  climate change, Kasese region, Uganda 2022.

Photo 9: Harmful agriculture practice to climate by typical burning residues of plants by farmers,  Ruwenzori Region, Uganda March 2022.

Photo 10: Analyzing of the result of the farm data collection in the class, the University of Mountains of  the Moon, Uganda 2022.