Around 180 students all of them candidates in Senior four and Senior six classes of Kagadi Secondary school in Kagadi District had their field day at NARO Rwebitaba ZARDI in Kabarole district on Thursday 14^th September 2023.

Led by their teachers Harriet Kemigisa and Henry Basabomwe, the students, were carried through fields of various commodities under research at the two stations of Rwebitaba ZARDI.

Tea technician Vereriyano Turyaheebwa led the school team through the research work being done on tea as Rwebitaba’s mandate crop at the Tea Research Center (TRC). The students were awed at the treasure in the National Tea Gene Bank that is hosted at the center and expressed interest in joining disciplines in agricultural research.

At the Kyembogo station, the students and teachers were guided by Douglas Mutebi Jjemba an agronomist at the institute, through farm tools and their purposes as well as fertilizers and pesticides. He also trained them in climate friendly and modern production technologies of beans, potatoes and bananas.

Dominic Twesigye the field coordinator for the NARO refugees’ project led the students through production technologies of coffee, macadamia and hass avocado. Rev. Abraham Ahabwe shared with the students the extensive work that the institute was doing in the districts of the Western Highlands Agro ecological zone (Rwenzori Region) through its technology promotion and outreach program.

Animal Health technician Innocent Gumoshabe took the students through animal nutrition and the varieties of pastures as well as their production and preservation. The Apiculture technician Mugume Ronald trained them through bee production and students were awed by the realization that there existed stingless bees, whose domestication was being researched on at the institute. The students also visited the institute agro-meteorology station as well as the fish ponds. Although rains interrupted much of the day’s program, the students who belonged to both the agriculture and geography club said that the knowledge they had acquired was going to help them even beyond their upcoming examinations.