Bukonzo farmers reap the fruits of partnership
Jul 10, 2013
Yohana Bwambale walks with pride as he supervises work on his farm. He has every reason to be happy. The former primary school teacher is now one of the most successful fruit farmers in Kasese district.
By Ronald Kalyango and Joshua Kato
Yohana Bwambale walks with pride as he supervises work on his farm. He has every reason to be happy. The former primary school teacher is now one of the most successful fruit farmers in Kasese district.
Every season he earns millions from growing pineapples, mangoes and oranges, thanks to a partnership he entered with Bukonzo Mixed Farm, an enterprise owned by Dr. Crispus Kiyonga, the defence minister and Bukonzo West County MP.
“It is not easy taking up farming in old age. It is like gambling with life, but I just enjoy it,” says the 76-year-old fruit farmer.
Bwambale compares farming to occupying a big political office -- you are in there, you do not want to get out.
How he started
With support from the National Agricultural Advisory Services (NAADS), Bukonzo Mixed Farm trained farmers and gave them planting materials to start them off in fruit production. Bwambale was one those trained.
Through this partnership, Bwambale received 140 grafted mango seedlings, which he planted on two acres of land in Kyambuwo II village, near the DR Congo border. He also got 1,200 pineapple suckers on an acre and 75 citrus seedlings on another acre. He is already harvesting the pineapples.
Encouraging testimonies
“Today, we have many orders for mangoes, pineapples and oranges. There is a ready market for the fruits in Kasese, Kabarole and in the major supermarkets in Kampala,” says Kiyonga, one of the entrepreneurs in the venture.
Kiyonga says they are now focussing on transforming all the small cotton gardens into fruit gardens in the coming years. According to him, the farmers should be encouraged to grow marketable crops, as opposed to cotton.
“For the last 10 years, a kilo of cotton has been at sh400 to sh600. This is what a small mango or pineapple costs. My vision is to turn all the small cotton gardens in Kasese into bigger pineapple, orange and mango gardens,” Kiyonga emphasises.
He observes that from just one acre of mangoes, a farmer can earn about sh5m in a single harvest.
Kiyonga says he decided to concentrate on fruit growing after realising their potential. For past nine years, his farm has been yielding pineapples, mangoes and oranges in large quantities.
Partnership with NAADS
After registering several successes in horticulture in 2009, Bukonzo Mixed Farm worked with NAADS to make fruit growing popular in the district.
The one-year partnership that cost over sh185m saw the NAADS secretariat contribute sh158m, while Bukonzo Mixed Farm contributed over sh28m.
Under the deal, Bukonzo Mixed Farm was supposed to identify farmers to be trained in better agronomic practices.
“Being a new enterprise, we needed to develop the farmers’ capacity for improved production of citrus, mangoes and pineapples. We had to establish more demonstration farms, develop sites and training intensively in orchard establishment and management,” Kiyonga explains.
The farm would then provide extension services to farmers from Karambi, Bwera, Nyakiyumbu, Mukunyu, Kisinga, Lake Katwe, Kyalhumba, Bukoki, Bughoye, Karusandara, Maliba and Kicwamba sub-counties.
“As a big farmer, I needed out-growers, but I did not have enough money to distribute the improved planting materials to farmers. I am happy the NAADS programme came in to support my initiative,” Kiyonga says.
Bukonzo Mixed Farm also worked with scientists from Kawanda Agricultural Research Institute to train 80 famers and give them planting materials.
Fruit factory in offing
Kiyonga and his colleagues are already processing the fruits into juice.
He says he has raised enough volumes to sustain the factory and is in advanced its stages towards of acquiring the machinery to fulfil his long-term dream of extracting juice from the three crops on his farm.
“The fruits that I have are enough to support a medium-size factory. I have submitted a business plan and I am optimistic I will get the loan,” he says. Through this venture, farmers like Bwambale will certainly earn more money.