Julius Mugara a member of Madfa Sacco and a 31 year-old father who shares his life with his wife and 5 children. The family lives in a small house in the suburbs of Masindi town. As head of the family he has to look for sources of income to maintain his family in Kisindizi village in Masindi District. Unfortunately he is from a poor family and inherited only half an acre of land from his parents.

Julius lived a life of struggling, he did not attend any formal education and is one of the 32% Ugandans who does not know how to read and write. He used to live in doing petty jobs as a casual labourer in which he barely met his family needs. Since he lives in the suburbs of Masindi town, he has no land of his own, meaning that he could not even do subsistence farming since the land inherited was very small.

In the year 2008, he mooted the idea of engaging in horticulture on a small scale after having seen the opportunity in Masindi and neighbouring towns.  His main challenge was how to do it given his limited land. He was advised to join Kisindizi youth farmers group which he did in 2008. As a member of the group he started saving slowly, but it was not yet enough to rent a piece of land.

After getting some returns from the small farming he practiced, Julius saved half of the proceeds with the group and half in a small box at home which he would keep underground in the bush. Unfortunately, luck was not on his side and one day an unknown person stole the box where he had saved UGX 300,000. That shocked him; after 3 years saving he had wanted to buy a small motorcycle to enable him transport his produce to the nearby towns and centres.

In 2009, Julius joined Madfa Sacco with savings of UGX 50,000 and a few months later he applied for a loan of UGX 200,000. He used the loan to rent one acre of land in Kihonda Village. He cleared the bush and used the loan for renting a tractor to plough the land. The balance of the loan was used for seeds, inputs and hiring a water pump for growing of cabbages during the dry season. At the end of the season Julius was able to earn UGX 530,000. He paid off the loan and remained with a balance. This motivated Julius to continue. However, he faced a challenge of suitable land.

In 2010, he identified 2 acres of land suitable for growing cabbages. However, the plot was 15 kilometres from his home in Nyakarongo village, Pakanyi Sub county. In order to use this land, he and the family agreed that he could go and stay at the farm till harvesting time. Little did he know that the land he rented was surrounded by thicket, which is the natural habitat for the black African monkeys. The monkeys appeared to be a big threat to his cabbages. He therefore constructed a hut in which he lived when cultivating the cabbages.

Julius managed to get a loan of UGX 700,000 since he had increased the acreage. However, he timed wrongly and  produced his cabbages at a time when there was a lot in the market. He only got UGX 550,000 from the two acres.

Consequently, the SACCO advised him to diversify his earnings by not only investing in one crop. He was given a top up loan of UGX 200,000 that helped him to rent land in 2011. With hindsight of the challenges Julius faced in horticulture, and with the trainings he received from Madfa through his group, Julius  also planted maize on three acres of land which he rented in Kisindizi. In the end he managed to pay off the loan and saved UGX 300,000.

Through the loans of Madfa Sacco, Julius  managed to achieve the following:

• Constructed a small semi-permanent house whereby he used family labour to prepare most of the materials, like bricks and stones
• Bought a small motorcycle for transporting his produce
• Paid school fees for his children in private schools that offer better quality education

This year, Julius went back to his horticulture farming after acquiring a loan of UGX 800,000 . He cultivated a one acre plot rented in Kilanyi Village, 6 kilometres away  from his home village. He also rented 3 acres of land in his village where he grew maize. He agreed with the wife to share responsibility: Julius stays at the cabbage garden; while his wife with the children look after the maize plot.

Julius also learnt to sell directly to final consumers by transporting the cabbages to town. This however, has challenges like being cheated by the people he hires to assist him in selling. In town he sells a cabbage for an average price of UGX 1,000 compared to UGX 300 at the  farm.

Julius has more plans: he wants to replace his old motorcycle with a new one, to buy three acres of land, to acquire his own water pump for sprinkle irrigation during the dry season, and to formalize his marriage to have a stable home.

His success and satisfaction with the services of Madfa Sacco made him to recommend 21 people to the Sacco, to save more regularly and not to do divert his loans.