The farmers in Kirumba Village in Rakai District have received vegetable seedlings to plant during the current rain season.

An Australian national, Jackie Perkins, the administrator of Quaker Services, Australia presided over the function which took place at the Uganda Rural Community Support Foundation (URCSF) Model Farm at Kirumba on November 7.

She travelled to Uganda in the company of Ms Barbara Wilde, also an Australian and a member of Quaker Services. Quaker Service Australia is one of the major supporters of URCSF, a local NGO that provides free agricultural training to poor small scale farmers.

The seedlings were prepared at URCSF gardens and they included cabbages, carrots, spinach, sukuma wiki, and a whole range of others. Mr Peter Francis Luswata, URCSF country director, took the visitors around the farm inspecting projects such as rain water harvesting, piggery, fruit-tree grafting, goat multiplication, fodder growing, local chicken breeding and others.

The visitors also inspected the construction site of a maize mill which according to Mr Luswata will be used to make maize flour.

"We have given out a lot of maize seeds to farmers and when they harvest the maize, it will be more profitable for them to sell flour instead of just the maize," Mr Luswata said.

Ms Wilde advised the local farmers to stay to rural areas and develop their land instead of going to seek salaried employment in town. "You are very lucky to have the land on which to grow your crops. You are not like others in countries where the indigenous people were deprived of their land."

She also told them to preserve its natural fertility and to practice environmentally friendly farming methods.