After years of subsistence farming and casual agricultural work, Nakiyemba Fatuma tested onion production on rented land. Three months later, she had sold 900 kilograms of onions for UGX 1,846,000 Million (approximately CHF 390.47) and was planning her next season. For years, when Nakiyemba Fatuma needed additional income, she worked in other people's gardens.
The mother of four grew crops for her household consumption, but growing for sale required something she did not readily have: capital, land and the confidence to put both into a crop she had never grown for sale. Then, in January 2026, she attended a community mobilisation organised through Traford Exports Commodities under the WeWork – Green and Decent Jobs for Youth initiative in Eastern Uganda.
At a demonstration garden, one crop caught her attention. Onions. What persuaded Fatuma was not simply seeing them grow. During the training, participants worked through the economics of onion production: what inputs would cost, what a farmer could potentially harvest, the likely selling price and what the numbers could mean commercially.
For Fatuma, accustomed to subsistence production and casual agricultural work, onions began to look less like another crop and more like a possible business. She decided to test the numbers for herself. First, she needed land. Fatuma did not have sufficient land available for commercial onion production.
So, she rented a quarter an acre from a neighbour. Through the initiative, she received training in good agronomic practices, climate-smart agriculture and post-harvest handling. But knowledge was only one of the constraints she faced. She also needed inputs. Traford's youth farmer input-bundle arrangement allowed participating farmers to access onion seed, fertiliser, crop-protection products, a spray pump and other production inputs without paying the entire cost upfront.
Fatuma contributed 20% of the cost of the input bundle at the beginning of the production cycle, with an agreed balance to be paid after harvest. She also received agronomic support from Traford extension workers linked to community-based Agrihubs during production, followed by support on post-harvest handling and market linkages. Then she waited for the crop.
Three months later, the onions were ready. Across four harvests from her quarter-acre plot, Fatuma harvested 900 kilograms of onions, generating UGX 1,846,000 (approximately CHF 390.47) in gross sales revenue. After paying UGX 50,000 (approximately CHF 10.58) for land rental and repaying UGX 700,000 (approximately CHF 148.06) in input credit, she was left with UGX 1,096,000 (approximately CHF 231.83).
For the first time, Fatuma had taken a commercial crop through an entire production cycle: securing land, accessing inputs on credit, applying new production practices, harvesting, selling and repaying the financing used to establish the crop.
Fatuma does not need convincing anymore. She is already planning another production cycle and wants to cultivate a larger area. This time, she approaches the decision differently. She knows what the inputs require. She knows how the crop behaves and she set aside money to reinvest. Fatuma has completed something more concrete than a training course. She has completed her first commercial onion cycle. And she wants the next one to be bigger.
The WeWork – Green and Decent Jobs for Youth project is co-funded by the European Union and the Government of Belgium through Enabel.