Courtesy of Danielle Langloism, Wikipedia CCL54,000 Goats on a Mission
KAMPALA, Uganda
President Museveni didn’t believe it when news came to him that Paul Ssembeguya of the village of Ntuusi had 35,000 goats and 1,000 head of cattle so he organized a visit to take a head count. “This man wants to outcompete me in livestock rearing,” the president was heard to say.
That visit resulted in a partnership between Ssembeguya estates and the Ugandan government to distribute 54,000 goats to farmers in Sembabule district in an attempt to help alleviate poverty. The project, to run over a 5 year period, will distribute goats to farmers on the condition that they not be sold for the first three years.
It hasn’t been an easy road for Ssembeguya. His first attempts at raising capital for farming were dashed and of the first 65 boer goats he imported from South Africa, 29 were lost to heart water disease. The rest were bred to other breeds to produce hardy cross-breeds. Plus his loss was a gain to regional goat herders. Due to his efforts a medication was designed to prevent the spread of the disease that cost him almost half of his imported stock.
The goal of the partnership is to raise exports to 16,000 goats per month after the first 5 years, providing the people of the district with a strong source of income and a degree of self-sufficiency.
