Farming As A Business: How To Successfully Grow Passion Fruit To Earn Millions

By Jacky Nabulwama

The Harvest Money Expo, Vision Group’s successful agricultural show, opened its gates at Namboole Stadium on Friday, February 14.

Visitors to the three-day event that ends on Sunday, part with sh10, 000 at the entrance. Those who wish to attend the training sessions will have to pay an extra sh10,000.



During the passion fruit growing session, the expert, Bashir Mayiga, guided the audience through the process of growing the fruit.

1. If the land has been cultivated, you just dig a one-foot by one-foot hole. However, if the land was bushy, clear it first. If you use a tractor to clear, make sure it doesn’t get too deep.
   
2. Consider the seed you’ll plant. You must make sure that the seed you are going to plant is from a good source. If you get a seed from a diseased passion fruit, it means your plants will also get infected.
   
3. From the healthy passion fruit, we’ll get seeds to plant in the nursery.
   
4. Seedlings should be placed in 2.5-inch polythene bags with top layer soil. Make sure the soil has been burned or get it from a charcoal-burned area to avoid bacteria and viruses that would attack the seedling.
   
5. Plant seedlings in a tray and cover it with either a polythene bag or dry grass because that warmth helps them germinate. They take three to four weeks to grow.
   
6. Thereafter, remove the polythene bag or dry grass and water once a day, especially in the evening. You can then place them on drying racks (katandalo) to shed them from the sun.
   
7. They grow for two months, and then you transplant them to the garden.
   
   
   
   
   
   Mayiga, who owns Bwasanddeku Mixed Farm in Kalungu, explained that he decided to venture into passion fruit grows because it is the only plant that can be harvested quickly. Additionally, it has an extended period of harvest, eight months to be precise. “One acre per week will get you four bags.
   
   
   
   
   
   At a low price, it will fetch sh450,000 to sh500, 000 if it weighs 80 kg. If it is a 90-kg bag, you will get sh800,000 to sh1m per week. Now you will multiply for a month and realise why we are stuck on passion fruit,” he said.