By George Bita
Farmers in Busoga sub-region have embraced cocoa growing which is helping them boost their household incomes.
According to Moses Bampalana, a farmer at Nawampiti village, Luuka district, he had been growing potatoes and beans on his eight acre farmland, just like any other rural farmer in the local government.
“These we would consume at home and sell the rest to nearby schools at about sh800, 000 per season. It meant earning about Sh1.6m a year with some sh400, 000 catering for labour,” Bampalana told New Vision on Thursday.
He recalled how in the year 2010, the Plan for Modernisation of Agriculture (PMA) came up with a cocoa farming project for locals.
“I was at first hesitant to do away with my potatoes for cocoa. But then on second thought I decided to give it a try,” he recounted.
He explained that using sh2m got from local sweet potato sales he opened up the farmland and planted the cocoa seedlings provided by PMA.
“I used about sh0.5m to procure musizi seedlings to interplant with the cocoa so as to have mandatory shade trees. The scorching sunshine if not regulated ends up affecting yields,” Bampalana disclosed.
He said that the musizi planted with cocoa restores natural tree cover which is good for the environment.
“We don’t add any fertilisers to our naturally fertile soils. So Luuka cocoa is organic with no additives which make it unique,” he claimed.
Ronald Mutango, an agricultural officer at Nawampiti sub-county revealed that there are two harvest seasons for cocoa in a year.
“The first season falls usually between March and May. Then it is followed by another from July to November,” Mutango noted.
Bampalana disclosed that he gets about 900kg of cocoa seeds from the garden each season although it often goes up to one ton.
He observed that with buyers paying an estimated Sh5, 000 per kilo, each season brings in about sh5m implying an annual gross profit of Sh10m.
“When I subtract the expenses on extracting seeds from the pods by hired labourers costing about Sh300, 000 I remain with about sh9.5m. The sh200, 000 caters for hired transport to take the cocoa to buyers in Mayuge district,” he said.
He adds that the buyers at times collect from the farm hence saving him the burden of paying transport costs.
Mutango narrated that farmers are encouraged to use malathion or Dudu-kill sprays to kill ants and other offensive insects that bore into stems as well as fruits leading to losses.
Bampalana isn’t alone as other farmers like Sulai Musaabi of Bunabala village are equally jumping onto the cocoa growing bandwagon.
Musaabi testified that he secured 100 seedlings from Operation Wealth Creation (OWC) in 2016.
“These I intercropped with bananas and they are growing well. I hope to benefit from the cocoa sales in the near future,” Sulai Musaabi of Bunabala village, Bukooma sub-county says.
He adds that he started on cocoa after visiting a farmer in Nawampiti who is earning a lot from the crop.
“I put in sh1m for opening up the garden and other preparations. This also catered for the transport costs,” he says.
He has plans of value addition to cocoa, so as to be able to make chocolate sweets and beverages as well as other expensive products to boost profits. Amos Dholaga, a cocoa farmer at Minani parish in Bugweri district said he earns a net profit of sh6m from his one acre farm annually.
Fred Kyera, a farmer at Nawandala village, Iganga district said he bought a four acre piece of land on which he planted cocoa in 2002
“The plantings were bought locally and cost me sh2m. Of late cocoa is on market and farmers are reaping big,” he argued.
He said that each week he harvests approximately 10kg of cocoa earning him sh50, 000 at farm gate price of sh5, 000 per kilogram.
“When it rains, the pods are much more and I can harvest about 30kg every seven days. That is the reason why I need an irrigation system on farm,” he said.
He believes the irrigation set up will ensure the crops get water without any interruptions all year round.
