Reaping from palm trees

A farmer harvests palm fruits. The commodity has become a key source of livelihood for the people of Kalangala District. Photo by JULIE KIGONGO. 

By ABDU KIYAGA
 

 

Before 2006, Euralia Nabbosa was a stay-home house wife in Njoga, a village on Bugala Island in Kalangala District.

Her husband, a fisher man would come home late carrying fish for dinner, which she would prepare with the food harvested from the family gardens.

However, around the same time Nabbosa received a rare opportunity when district officials who were moving door-to-door interested her in growing palm trees.

The officials were trying to convince residents to grow palm trees, which currently cover about 10,000 acres of the heavily forested island.

“At first many people were against the project saying it was a land grabbing trick. However, my instincts told me to try it out given that I wasn’t involved in any productive activity,” Nabbosa says.


“In Kalangala much of the land is public [land] so we only had to open parts of the forest to give way for the growth of palm oil,” she says.


And according to Nabbosa, after one had opened up any piece of land, that person would become the owner of the land.

“I opened up two acres, but I bought another five at Shs150,000 from a loan that I had acquired from Kalangala Oil Palm Growers Trust (KOPGT).”

“However, just like other farmers I acquired more funds from KOPGT for buying seeds and mechanical tools that would later help me to set up my garden.”

After four years, in April 2010, Nabbosa harvested her first fruits, with the first harvest giving her 324 kilogrammes.


“I was not that happy because I had put in so much. I had expected more. However, I kept hopeful,” she says.

The government through the ministry of Agriculture earmarked Shs40.5 billion that is lent out to farmers in order to boost their productive capacity as well as adhering to quality.

The loans, which have a three year grace period, are given in form of seedlings, pesticides and harvesting knives among others items.


The three year grace period is premised on the fact that the plant can only be ready for harvest after a certain period upon which farmers can start to earn.

During harvest time, the buyers who are mainly KOPGT members deduct 33 per cent of the total sales from farmers who acquired loans.


The farmers, according to common practices are only allowed to harvest the fruit three times in a month, with a spacing of 10 days per harvest.

Ms Nabbosa, as she says, used her first harvest to acquire more land, which increased her acreage to 10.

In her seven years of growing palm trees, Nabbosa has built herself a bungalow that houses her and the family.

“I cannot pull down my old house [the wooden shack] because when I look at it, it reminds me of how far I have come from. I feel grateful that I took a decision to join the palm tree growing project,” she says.

Currently a kilogramme of palm fruit goes for Shs365 and last year Nabbosa earned Shs1.27 million from her two tonnes of the harvest.

Just like any other ventures, palm tree growing has its own challenges.