Aletwa Messach is a 25 year old young man who hails from Bunjonjo village in Fort Portal. He is a senior six leaver who gave up school in 2017 after failing to join university due to financial constraints, he lives with his parents who he helps in cultivating and maintaining their banana plantation farm.

It was one afternoon as he was listening to the radio when he heard about the opportunity to receive skills training that he immediately saw a chance to acquire hands on skills. He went for enrollment at Kabarole District Farmers Association (KADFA) training center which was conducting the training supported by Enabel.
He registered to do a training in Nursery Management and Grafting where he learned how to make a nursery bed and graft different types of crops, when to graft them and how.

The training had sessions of basic business management tips, self-awareness and confidence building of trainees who enrolled for the course.” I developed a new positive attitude towards farming since I had previously wanted to go to university but failed, my self-esteem was boosted and I am now able to solicit new ideas from people with no fear or shame,” says Aletwa.
“I have also been able to make a step forward by adding on my knowledge of farming like grafting which was my best experience during the training,” reveals Aletwa. After the training he asked his father for a piece of land where he began a nursery bed and grafting the seedlings of various crops.               

He intends to become a seedlings supplier mainly growing and supplying grafted seedlings. There is ready market for grafted seedlings whereby one seedling fetches 40,000shs per sale. Aletwa currently has over 1000 seedlings some of which he already transplanted to the main garden after grafting them.

He has grafted over 100 seedlings of avocado. Aletwa’s passion for grafting enables him offer his colleagues with advice and sometimes help in grafting and nursery bed management. They were taught how to make oil from avocado, this helps them in the production of avocado oil that is also a good business venture for the trainees.