Two students from Kakira Senior Secondary School have developed a manual seed planter they believe could help smallholder farmers plant faster, reduce labour costs and improve efficiency during one of the most demanding stages of crop production.
Splendour Tusabe, a Senior Two student, and Shaban Mukama, who is in Senior Six, teamed up to design the planter after identifying the challenges many farmers face during planting. Both students study agriculture and say their innovation was inspired by the need to make farming less labour-intensive and more affordable.
The manually operated planter performs three tasks in a single movement: it opens the soil, deposits the seed and covers it, eliminating the need for separate planting processes.
According to the students, farmers using traditional methods often spend up to eight hours planting an acre and hire casual labour at a cost of about 60,000 Shillings per acre. Their prototype, they say, can complete the same work in about three hours, significantly reducing both the time and expense involved. “Our research showed that planting remains one of the most labour-intensive activities for farmers. We wanted to develop a simple tool that any farmer can afford and use to save both time and money,” Tusabe said.
The innovation has already been tested by eight large-scale farmers, each cultivating at least 10 acres. Mukama says the feedback has been encouraging, with farmers describing the planter as reliable, practical and cost-effective.
Mukama says feedback from the farmers has been overwhelmingly positive, with many describing the planter as reliable, practical and cost-effective. He adds that the farmers have encouraged the team to develop a motorised version capable of covering larger areas more quickly.
The project emerged through a national secondary school innovation programme that encourages learners to transform classroom ideas into practical solutions for real-life challenges. The competition attracted more than 900 schools before being narrowed down through several stages of training, mentorship and pitching. Kakira Senior Secondary School is advancing to the national finals alongside Ngora High School and Iganga Secondary School from eastern Uganda.
The students used part of their innovation grant to build the planter, spending about 155,000 Shillings to move from concept to a working machine.
Their patron teacher, Simon Ebiau, says one of the biggest challenges facing school-based innovation is the limited time available for research and product development, as students must balance innovation with their normal academic schedule.
“Most of the work had to be done after class because lessons take priority. Despite that, the students remained committed until they produced a fully functional machine,” Ebiau said. Education experts say innovations like the Kakira seed planter demonstrate the growing role of schools in solving community problems through science, technology and entrepreneurship.
With agriculture employing the majority of Uganda’s population, affordable technologies developed by young innovators could contribute to improving productivity, lowering production costs and accelerating the country’s drive towards agricultural mechanisation.
The students are now looking to refine the planter further and eventually develop a motorised version capable of serving commercial farmers while remaining accessible to smallholder producers-URN. Give us feedback on this story through our email: kamwokyatimes@gmail.com
