Judith Bakirya
Permaculture farmer from Uganda From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Permaculture farmer from Uganda From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Judith Bakirya is a Ugandan permaculture farmer. She was named one of the BBC's 100 Women for 2019.[1]
Bakirya was born in the Bugosa District of Uganda, and raised on a farm, though she did not initially intend to be a farmer.[2] As a child, in addition to working on her family's farm, Bakirya and her sisters attended school.[2] At her primary school she qualified for a scholarship to the prestigious secondary school, Mt St Mary's College Namagunga.[2] She later qualified for a government scholarship to attend university, and earned a Masters in health and development from Birmingham University in the UK.[2]
In 2000, Bakirya quit her job at an NGO in order to return to farming.[3] Using her savings and a small loan from the village Savings and Loans Association, she founded Busaino Fruits & Trees.[2] In 2014, she won the Best Farmers competition sponsored by Vision Group, the Netherlands Embassy in Uganda, KLM Airlines and DFCU Bank.[4] The prize included a chance to exhibit at the Source of the Nile Agriculture Show[4] and to attend agricultural exhibitions in the Netherlands.[5] After this, she opened her own exhibition centre for traditional medicine and culture in Uganda's Jinja District.[6] In 2017, she began the National Agro-Tourism Institute in Jinja to further promote Ugandan agro-tourism and education.[7]
Bakirya now runs Busaino Fruits & Trees as an agro-heritage fruit farm of more than 1,000 acres, with a heavy emphasis on agro-tourism and education regarding environmentally sustainable farming practices.[2] In 2019, this work led to her recognition as one of the BBC's "100 Women" for the year.