The sky is clear as we drive from Kampala towards Nakasongola District, some 100km away.Our destination is on an eight-acre farm in Wabigalo village in Nakasongola where farmer Julius Nyanzi grows stevia, among other crops.Over half of the farm hosts eucalyptus, pumpkins and lavender herbs in different portions. The other part, about some three acres, hosts the stevia plants.“I plant them at different times to ensure I have produce all-the-year round. The ones over there I planted early January while the others last year,” says Nyanzi as he squats to check on a plant..

“In stevia, I found my second job and career.”

Nyanzi the researcher

Unlike other graduates who move from one corner of the city to another looking for employment, Nyanzi started earning from his career right from University. Nyanzi’s dream of becoming a renowned researcher in the agriculture industry started years back.The loss of his relatives to diabetes kept him wondering if there would be a nature plant that would use instead of sugar.At first he thought sorrel (kanyebwanyebwe) would be a substitute for sugar but when he grinded, it had no better results.“My journey to be a researcher started at an early age and it has been resilience to make the dream come true,” Nyanzi remarks.Pursuing a Bachelor’s of Science in Botany and Chemistry Pharmacology at MakerereUniversity enabled him do more research, reading a number of books and visiting the Internet for more information. However, during one of his studies Nyanzi came across a tropic plant called stevia that can be substitute for sugar and on reading about its health benefits, he saw the worth of growing such a crop in Uganda.“In my second year at University, I got a chance to work with Agro Genetic Technologies, a tissue culture company in Buloba where I gained experience in tissue culture,” he reveals.While at Buloba, Nyanzi’s research about stevia did not stop he went to share his idea about stevia with different people who seemed to show no interest but this did not stop him.

What you need to know

Urban dwellers are gradually beginning to realise the importance of growing plants with medicinal value in their compounds.Most of these plants include stevia rebaudiana for processing natural sugar, citronella grass for mosquito repellant, lemon grass and lemon eucalyptus for processing tea leaves.These were some of the plants exhibited by scientists from Prof Bioresearch at the recently concluded Seeds of Gold Farm Clinic which took place at Makerere University Agricultural Research Institute, Kabanyolo (MUARIK).Most farmers were flocking the tent where the plants were being exhibited not only to get knowledge about their use but many bought seedlings for planting.The team at Prof Bioresearch has embarked on adding value to the plants in a bid to come up with medicinal products which are a remedy to particular health challenges faced by people.Aaron Nyanzi, a farmer with Prof Bioresearch, explains that the initiative to add value to the plants is an idea of Julius Nyanzi who is the director of the company.“I have been trained by Julius to process extracts from these plants and I also market the products. The most important thing is to grow the raw materials, which we are doing on one-acre land located in Masanafu but we also solicit material fromoutgrowers who are located in the central and eastern regions, mainly in Busoga,” says Aaron Nyanzi..

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AWAKE. EDUCATE & IGNITE WISDOM. Prof bioresearch raises awareness through multimedia content generation and distribution. Omukenkufu Nyanzi Julius develops and deploys educational media and resources based on real-world results. Provoking research in both Eastern and Western medicine is key to streamlining paths to diagnosis and treatment of autoimmune. Prof bioresearch does this every day.

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