Best Farmers Awards set for next week

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The wait is finally over. After months of anticipation and rigorous judging, Uganda’s top agriculturalists are set to take centre-stage as the 2025 Best Farmers Competition crowns its champions.

Thirteen winners will be announced at a high-profile invite-only ceremony at the Vision Group headquarters in Kampala next Wednesday, starting at 3:00pm.

This will mark another milestone in a contest that has transformed lives and reshaped agriculture countrywide. The function will be broadcast live on Bukedde TV 1 at 5:00-7:00pm.

The chief judge, Victoria Ssekitoleko, described the selection process as “a challenging task”, noting the exceptional quality of the competitors, particularly from central, western, and mid-eastern regions of Uganda.

“After an exercise that took us almost one month, we have finally come up with the winners,” Ssekitoleko said on November 25.

Sponsorship

The competition — organised by Vision Group in partnership with the Netherlands Embassy in Uganda, KLM Royal Dutch Airlines, dfcu Bank and Koudjis Nutrition BV— has become a flagship event on Uganda’s agricultural calendar.

This year’s competition was launched at Sebastian Ngambwa’s farm in Zirobwe, Luwero district in April. Since its inception in 2014, the initiative has crowned 121 farmers. Next week, the number will rise to 134.

Prizes and rewards

The top 10 winners will share cash prizes as follows:

First place: sh50m

Second place: sh30m

Third place: sh20m

The remaining winners will share sh50m

The three winners in the co-operative category will not receive cash prizes, but will travel to the Netherlands.

Challenges, recommendations

The judges highlighted the persistent challenges in the sector. These include bad feeder roads that stop farmers from reaching markets, fake farm inputs which lead to bad farm yields, limited financing which retards scaling up and the inadequate extension services which means that farmers lack proper farming knowledge.

“We travelled across the country in November and found roads in a bad state. Farmers struggle to move produce to markets, leading to losses,” said Augustine Mwendya, a veteran farmer leader who previously worked with the Uganda National Farmers Federation.

Key recommendations

• Supporting village-level training by the best farmers since all the winners are model farmers in their areas
• Easing access to improved seeds by the Government to boost production
• Developing business accelerator programmes for farmers, for example, by banks.

The judges

• Victoria Ssekitoleko (chief judge) is a former agriculture minister, former Food and Agriculture Organisation employee and sits on several agri-value chain bodies.
• Josephat Byaruhanga is the agriculture policy officer in the Embassy of the Netherlands as well as a veteran national and community agriculturalist.
• Augustine Mwendya is a veteran farmer leader who previously worked with the Uganda National Farmers Federation.
• Dr Emma Naluyima was the 2014 and 2022 Best Farmers competition winner and is a practising veterinary officer and educationist.
• Ogenga Latigo is a returning judge and farmer. He holds years of agriculture experience.
• Alex Madolo is an agribusiness specialist who worked as an agriculture loans officer for several years, before joining dfcu Bank.