Aloe Vera will also hurt our farmers
IT was a well-attended show; as usual. The week long annual national agriculture show, held at the source of the Nile, Jinja, attracted hundreds of exhibitors from all over. They were not disappointed. People eager for knowledge constantly swarmed their stalls.
By Andrew Ndawula
IT was a well-attended show; as usual. The week long annual national agriculture show, held at the source of the Nile, Jinja, attracted hundreds of exhibitors from all over. They were not disappointed. People eager for knowledge constantly swarmed their stalls.
However, as someone who has been religiously attending these shows, I couldn’t help noticing the near disappearance of certain things; rabbits, Moringa and Neem.
At one point in the past, almost half the stalls at the show had one or two of them in one form or another. Instead, what seemed to have caught every one’s fancy is Aloe Vera.
The plant and its various products were all over the place, being touted as the farmer’s lifeline out of poverty. I have no problem with Aloe vera; I grow it myself.
I don’t also blame the farmers for being gullible; a drowning man will clutch at a straw. The blame goes to whoever is behind this new culture of speculative farming.
From rabbits, to neem tree, to Moringa, Vanilla and now Aloe Vera, the country’s agriculture sector seems to be led by speculators, calling themselves promoters.
By the time the “exotic†type arrived from the US, I had already been collecting Aloe Vera from different parts of the country, and other medicinal plants as a hobby. So I was keen to add it to my collection, though a veteran herbalist warned me that it was just like broiler chicken; lots of meat, and no taste.
Capt. Andrew Tindikawa, with 30 years experience in herbal medicine, assured me the most potent Aloe Vera comes from Karamoja. But farmers were advised to grow that from the US.
Excited farmers cleared their established gardens of Moringa, Neem and Vanilla, to plant the new wonder crop. They also had to raise the money to buy the seed; sh1,500 a sucker.
Two years down the road, the Aloe Vera bubble seems ready to burst. In a desperate bid to recover their money, some pioneer Aloe Vera farmers are selling suckers for as little as sh300. By end of year, it might be down to sh100. Meanwhile the talk of a huge foreign market in Kenya and beyond continues. That is where the problem is.
Before we tackle the elusive “lucrative†foreign market, we should first satisfy our own. Besides being an opportunity to polish up our products, it will also give us a chance to build our capacity. Take packaging for instance. I believe in herbal medicine. However the way some of them were packaged, discouraged me from buying them.
Looking at the country’s health sector, where many rural centres cannot stock even the most basic, surely Ugandans need this Aloe Vera, Neem and Moringa.
Surely every home in Uganda should have a Neem tree, dubbed arobaini (forty) by Kenyans, because it cures 40 disease, and “village pharmacy†by Asians for the same reason. Strange enough, most Ugandans planted it as a commercial crop, which would earn them money, to go to hospital when they fall sick.
The same applies to Moringa. It is both highly nutritional and medicinal. It is a blessing in a country like Uganda dogged by disease and malnutrition. Instead we wanted to export it to the US, where the biggest disease is obesity.
It also makes a wonderful animal feed. It is for that reason that I continue to grow it, even after fellow farmers cut down theirs because there is no market for it. My pigs just love it.
Instead of harping on the export market, our leaders should help farmers to demystify these new crops, so that speculators and conmen do not exploit them.
When the Aloe Vera bubble finally bursts, as it surely will, farmers should know how to use it locally to make items like soap, creams, medicine, etc.
andawula@newvision.co.ug
IT was a well-attended show; as usual. The week long annual national agriculture show, held at the source of the Nile, Jinja, attracted hundreds of exhibitors from all over. They were not disappointed. People eager for knowledge constantly swarmed their stalls.
However, as someone who has been religiously attending these shows, I couldn’t help noticing the near disappearance of certain things; rabbits, Moringa and Neem.
At one point in the past, almost half the stalls at the show had one or two of them in one form or another. Instead, what seemed to have caught every one’s fancy is Aloe Vera.
The plant and its various products were all over the place, being touted as the farmer’s lifeline out of poverty. I have no problem with Aloe vera; I grow it myself.
I don’t also blame the farmers for being gullible; a drowning man will clutch at a straw. The blame goes to whoever is behind this new culture of speculative farming.
From rabbits, to neem tree, to Moringa, Vanilla and now Aloe Vera, the country’s agriculture sector seems to be led by speculators, calling themselves promoters.
By the time the “exotic†type arrived from the US, I had already been collecting Aloe Vera from different parts of the country, and other medicinal plants as a hobby. So I was keen to add it to my collection, though a veteran herbalist warned me that it was just like broiler chicken; lots of meat, and no taste.
Capt. Andrew Tindikawa, with 30 years experience in herbal medicine, assured me the most potent Aloe Vera comes from Karamoja. But farmers were advised to grow that from the US.
Excited farmers cleared their established gardens of Moringa, Neem and Vanilla, to plant the new wonder crop. They also had to raise the money to buy the seed; sh1,500 a sucker.
Two years down the road, the Aloe Vera bubble seems ready to burst. In a desperate bid to recover their money, some pioneer Aloe Vera farmers are selling suckers for as little as sh300. By end of year, it might be down to sh100. Meanwhile the talk of a huge foreign market in Kenya and beyond continues. That is where the problem is.
Before we tackle the elusive “lucrative†foreign market, we should first satisfy our own. Besides being an opportunity to polish up our products, it will also give us a chance to build our capacity. Take packaging for instance. I believe in herbal medicine. However the way some of them were packaged, discouraged me from buying them.
Looking at the country’s health sector, where many rural centres cannot stock even the most basic, surely Ugandans need this Aloe Vera, Neem and Moringa.
Surely every home in Uganda should have a Neem tree, dubbed arobaini (forty) by Kenyans, because it cures 40 disease, and “village pharmacy†by Asians for the same reason. Strange enough, most Ugandans planted it as a commercial crop, which would earn them money, to go to hospital when they fall sick.
The same applies to Moringa. It is both highly nutritional and medicinal. It is a blessing in a country like Uganda dogged by disease and malnutrition. Instead we wanted to export it to the US, where the biggest disease is obesity.
It also makes a wonderful animal feed. It is for that reason that I continue to grow it, even after fellow farmers cut down theirs because there is no market for it. My pigs just love it.
Instead of harping on the export market, our leaders should help farmers to demystify these new crops, so that speculators and conmen do not exploit them.
When the Aloe Vera bubble finally bursts, as it surely will, farmers should know how to use it locally to make items like soap, creams, medicine, etc.
andawula@newvision.co.ug