Serebe grows money on trees

By Gilbert Kidimu

Not more than two hours away from Kampala, stand towering pine trees blanketing 85 acres of hills in Kitalegerwa, Mubende district.

John Serebe, the man behind the vast forest plantation, stands on the side gazing upon his sprawling estate with stately satisfaction.

In three years, the harvest will be ready and the rewards aplenty.

They say Africa’s next billionaires will be farmers, and Serebe’s infinite forest of pine confirms the gold mine that is on the farm.

Once Serebe retired from public service in 1987, he ventured into private employment for a couple of years.

 He later realised private employment wasn’t his cup of tea thanks to years in public service.

He subsequently went into farming. Cattle, pigs, and food crops kept him busy and earned him a decent enough living.

When commercial tree planting sprang as a viable investment in Uganda, he joined the fray and in 2005, after buying 40 acres of land in Kitalegerwa, planted his first Australian pine tree forest.

He later bought more land in the same village and planted more trees until 2010, covering over 85 acres of land.

While pine trees are known to take twenty years before maturity; ten years later, the first plantation looks almost ready for harvest.

“The Australian pine I planted grows faster, also, the good preparation enables the trees to grow steadily,” explains Serebe.

“You have got to start pruning when the trees reach five years, and then thinning at six,” he adds. Thinning is removing some trees in order to create enough room for other trees to grow well. By time of maturity, there are 10 trees left out of 25.

He however reveals that there are not many buyers in Uganda as the timber industry isn’t fully developed yet, so the trees removed during thinning usually go to making fences sometimes charcoal or firewood, which he calls underutilisation.

Planting a lot more trees than the number intended for harvesting is deliberately done to speed up their growth.

Trees planted closer together compete for light hence grow taller faster.

When he set out to plant trees, he approached Uganda Forestry Authority, where he was advised on what to do and was also handed literature on pine forestry. He afterwards acquired seedlings from Namanve.

Serebe later received expert training from Sawlog Production Grant Scheme (SPGS), a European Union initiative funding the establishment of timber plantations.

“They go as far as inspecting the area to guide you on how to properly plant the trees. Since some areas on my land are soggy, I was advised to utilise only the dry part. In case of disease, they send someone to study the situation and advise on how to go about it.”

The first thinning was done by SPGS.

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Serebe's workers on payday

Why pine trees

In his 70s, Serebe is glad to have made an investment to benefit not just him, but his children, grandchildren and perhaps great grandchildren.

He is no doubt the proverbial good man who leaves an inheritance to his children’s children.

 Serebe says he chose the more expensive option, tree farming instead of the food crop alternative because he wanted to make a long term investment lasting generations.

“I first wanted to grow eucalyptus trees, which mature faster and require less attention, but the land being infested with termites wouldn’t let that development materialise,” he explains. He thus concentrated on pines whose acids cannot let termites a chance.

“Pines take twenty years to mature but these will be ready for harvest at 13 years because of a number of factors including good care, the quality of seedlings and type. You cannot just buy seedlings from a nursery bed and plant.”

Although the trees have not yet fully matured, he has got clients already.  He has sold off rejected trees.

Rejected trees are basically those that aren’t perfectly straight. While doing the thinning, it is those ones that he first considers to remove.

New timber factories owned by Chinese have bought trees from him. They use them to make door frames, chair and table stands. Now that they aren’t fully matured and only rejects are sold, each tree costs up to Sh300, 000

Serebe employs 20 staff members, who work on both the tree forest and food crop fields. Feeding and paying salary of 20 staff is not plain sailing.

The food crop fields of maize, beans, matooke, and soy occupying the rest of his vast land are meant to feed his employees and the rest is sold off to pay their salaries. The last beans harvest brought 90 bags.

“In three years, the first six acres will be ready for sale.”

As we took a walk through the vast pine forest, the overwhelming amount of fresh air in it couldn’t take my mind off its overwhelming monetary worth.

The rewards in waiting are certainly staggering if his recent refusal to hand over his fields to an interested buyer offering Sh5 billion, is to be considered.

Each fully grown eucalyptus tree is currently priced at Sh500, 000. With over 20, 000 trees in total, passing on Sh5 billion is understandable.

Tree planting isn’t all plain sailing

Commercial tree plantation is the furthest thing from easy. Close supervision is paramount during planting. It requires many people and caution. Holes have to be dug a certain depth and planting should be done in a straight line using a tape measure.

Since pine trees have to be weeded during the earlier years, spraying the weeds is impossible as the trees too might be affected.  Slashing too is ruled out; thus making weeding a meticulous process.