Govt fronts macadamia for poverty alleviation in Busoga

Government has partnered with One Acre Fund (OAF) to front macadamia nuts to farmers as part of poverty alleviation strategies in Busoga Sub-region.

Jinja District Production Officer Dr Tom Kasadha says government set aside three strategic commercial crops including Hass avocado, macadamia and cashew nuts.

However, macadamia and Hass avocado have been specifically earmarked for Busoga Sub-region.

Dr Kasadha made these remarks as Jinja District Principal Assistant Chief Administrative Officer (CAO) Alamanzan Kakaire handed over 14,000 macadamia seedlings to OAF on behalf of the government.

These are to be distributed to 4,164 farmers in Jinja District, 4,308 in Kamuli, 5,803 in Iganga and 2,203 in Bugweri.

“We are supposed to be promoting macadamia by mobilising farmers but are happy that OAF has come in handy to mobilise them,” Dr Kasadha said on September 23.

He added that the consignment is supposed to be received by the district officials and handed over to OAF since they have mobilised the farmers.

Daisy Atukunda, the government relations and partnerships lead at OAF, said macadamia is part of the larger countrywide National Agricultural Advisory Services (Naads) subsidy.

“We have mostly been known for maize but are now trying to shift from the food security angle.

“We still do food security, but thought it is time to move our farmers in line with what the National Development Plan (NDP) is pushing for – away from subsistence farming to looking at farming as business bringing more money into the pockets of farmers,” Atukunda said.

“This is not just another crop we are distributing; there is a very well-thought pipeline for it so that farmers feel their families will benefit in the long term,” she remarked.

Macadamia nuts are expected to provide high value cash crop diversity and additional long-term income for small holder farmers.

According to Atukunda, the price for macadamia in shell, or macadamia which has just been harvested and is still in its shell, is at Shs3,500 per kilogramme.

“So, if you have a kilogramme of macadamia producing 20 kilogrammes per tree, even with just five trees you can see the difference that would make in a farmer's life,” said Atukunda.

The product innovations lead at OAF, Evelyn Nankya, said famers are going to receive grafted seedlings and they guarantee that they will be able to get very high yields in the near future.

She added that OAF has partnered with a company that will buy the yields when the farmers start to harvest, adding that yields are expected within the first five years, but will increase as years pass.

“In the first five years, expect at least 20Kgs per tree of nuts and this increases as the tree grows older; it is similar to coffee,” she said.

Government relations coordinator for OAF, Brenda Yariwo, said they lobbied with government to make sure farmers are offered subsidy.