SAA Invests in the Entrepreneur

SAA's approach to agricultural transformation begins with people; specifically, with women entrepreneurs who sit at the intersection of knowledge, community trust, and commerce. Through practical training, business mentorship, and connections to financial services and agricultural suppliers, SAA equips women like Thierty not just with information, but also with the capacity to act on it.

This investment in skills, networks, and confidence is the starting point of a chain that reaches far beyond the individual woman. It reaches all the way to the farmer's field and the communities’ tables as they enjoy meals.

The Entrepreneur Reaches the Farmer

At a recent agricultural exhibition in Kamuli, eastern Uganda, Thierty stood beside a stall displaying a variety of products from her shop. While many exhibitors displayed familiar products, she had brought something different; tools and soil solutions that most farmers attending had never seen before.

Among the most talked-about was the jab planter, a simple but transformative tool that allows a farmer to press, drop a seed, and close the hole in one fluid motion. No full ploughing. Less labour. Less cost. Moreover, because it disturbs only a small section of soil, it supports minimum tillage hence protecting the soil structure, preserving beneficial organisms, and improving moisture retention in a climate increasingly marked by unpredictable rainfall.

Thierty had also brought Blended Bio-Enrich, an organic soil enhancer that returns beneficial microbes and organic matter to soils depleted by repeated cultivation. By improving nutrient absorption, root development, and water retention, Bio-Enrich addresses one of the most persistent challenges facing smallholder farmers across the continent.

"The farmers loved me and supported me. They bought my products. Even the people who organised the exhibition were curious about how I do business."

— Thierty, Agripreneur in Kamuli district.

Farmers inquire about different products at Thierty's stall.

She had arrived as the only exhibitor offering these particular products, uncertain how farmers would respond. The response exceeded her expectations. By the end of the day, many farmers had purchased Bio-Enrich and left carrying jab planters, ready for the next planting season. What began as a product display became a lively learning space: farmers gathered around her stall, asking questions, taking notes, exchanging ideas, and exploring new possibilities. "This will change my farmers in the community," she reflected. "I brought jab planters for planting — it saves expenses for farmers and it is faster."

The Community Gains

The impact of Thierty's work does not stop at a transaction. Every jab planter sold reduces a farmer's labour costs and planting time. Every bag of Bio-Enrich restores what years of cultivation have taken from the soil. Healthier soils grow more food. More food means greater food security for families and communities. A thriving woman entrepreneur, confident, connected, and commercially active, becomes a node of knowledge and inspiration in her own right.

This is the logic at the heart of SAA's work: invest in a woman and the investment compounds. It moves from the programme room to the marketplace to the farmer's field to the community's table.

That is not charity. That is systems change.

On this International Women's Day 2026, Thierty's stall at the exhibition was a small but vivid picture of what "Give to Gain" looks like in practice. A young woman, equipped with knowledge and skills, now equipping farmers. Through those farmers, strengthening the food systems that sustain entire communities. Sometimes transformation begins with something remarkably small like a single entrepreneur, a new tool in a farmer's hand, and the knowledge that agriculture can always be better.

Thierty explains how to apply the blended boi-enrich for soil enhancement as farmers attentively take notes.

Article on LinkedIn