As the Covid-19 lockdown bites harder, innovative farmers have shifted goal posts and are growing ginger, one of the leading crops being used in the fight against Coronavirus.

One of such farmers is Moses Mpasa, 59, the model farmer from Mukokotokwa village in Mbulamuti Sub County, Kamuli district.

For eight years now, Mpasa has grown ginger on a commercial basis, selling the rhizomes to bulky traders from urban centers including Jinja and Kampala cities.

Like he knew that Covid -19 was just around the corner, Mpasa, ahead of the 2020 lockdown, tripled the enterprise, graduating to one of the ginger suppliers in Kamuli district.

Growing the crop in basins and intercropping it in the banana, coffee and fruit orchards, Mpasa has made remarkable proceeds, registering 40-50 kgs from each basin across the farm.

He has over 90 basins spread across the farm (coffee, banana plantation, and orchard) enterprises.

“Even before the 2020 lockdown, I was a practicing ginger farmer. With the high demand due to the lockdown, I am earning millions from the crop,”

 From the 90 basins spread across the farm, Mpasa harvests 40-50kgs from each, totaling to 2,250-2,500 kgs.

The farm gate price per a kilogram is sh5,000, while in open markets like Kamuli and Jinja central markets, the end-user  pays sh8,000 per kilogram.

In the past, ginger had miserable rates as low as  sh1,000 per kilogram, while the end users paid between sh1,300 and 1,600 per kilogram.

Mpasa testified that since the first and second Covid-19 wave hit the nation, the ginger enterprise has become lucrative.

Read this aromatic story in Harvest Money this Friday, July 9^th