For a long time, the island districts of Buvuma and Kalangala were known for fishing and fish trade as a source of livelihood.
However, the fishing never improved people’s fortunes, with many area residents wallowing in poverty for long, and the district being ranked among the poorest in the country.
“We normally sold fish to different companies at very low prices, which could not improve our livelihoods. I was also growing coffee but the productivity was low; I could not even afford school fees for my children,” says James Lutaaya, a resident of Busanga Village in Mugoye Sub County, Kalangala District.
However in 1990, the government identified oil palm as a potential commercial crop suitable for the soils in the area and also to boost the people’s fortunes. Besides, government sought to decrease the country’s dependence on imported oil. Oil palm is the world’s most versatile vegetable oil which is used to make soap, cooking oil, medicines, cosmetics, and ingredients used in the automotive industry among others.
As a result, the Government of Uganda and International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD) under a public-private partnership (PPP), which they named the National Oil Palm Project embarked on palm oil growing in Kalangala.
The government then embarked on a pilot project, which started with 60 farmers.
Lutaaya was among 60 farmers that got engaged in the pilot agricultural project. He started with 62 acres of the crop.
He was taught how to balance oil palm growing and other crops such as coffee, maize, food and animal husbandry. Government worked with Kalangala District leaders under Kalangala Palm Oil project, and taught the farmers how to prepare a nursery, application of fertiliser, weeding, disease control, harvest and others.
An oil palm tree bears fruit at four years and if well nurtured, is able to be harvested at least thrice a month thereafter.
Lutaaya says since then, he has never looked back, adding that the sales and profits from the crop have enabled him to educate his children up to institutions of higher learning.
“I have been the chairperson of palm farmers for 17 years. Government gave me a car that we used to survey the crop,” Lutaaya explains.
Commercial palm oil growing in the area officially kicked off in the district in 2006, and Outgrowers have since planted over 4, 828 hectares. There are two factories in Kalangala, each with a production capacity of 20 metric tonnes of crude oil per hour. Currently, a kilogramme of fresh fruit bunches of oil palm is sold at Shs869 from Shs857 in April. Oil palm has been grown on a large scale on Bugala, Bubembe and Bunyama Islands in Kalangala District.
The crude oil is transported for value addition to Jinja for refinery at Bidco Uganda Limited, manufacturers of cooking oil products, fats, baking powder, margarine and soap.
Smallholder farmers supply on average 6.9 million kilogrammes of fresh fruit bunches earning a gross income of Shs6b every month. Smallholder farmers also earn from oil palm leaves once pruned, which they sell as brooms used in urban areas such as Kampala.
Connie Magomu Masaba, the Project Manager of the National Oil Palm Project (NOPP), says that growing of oil palm will transform households from subsistence farming to commercial agriculture.
She adds that the project has created thousands of jobs directly with many working in nurseries and on the plantation with many more expected indirectly.
Government has since secured $200m (about Shs729b) to roll out the oil palm project to other parts of the country.
Soil samples were taken from the districts of Buvuma, Buikwe, Mukono, Mayuge, Namayingo, Masaka and those in Bunyoro Sub-region where the project would be extended.
“Researchers at the National Agricultural Research Organisation (NARO) have already provided reports which are positive and the project is sustainable in those districts. The testing involved the planting of palm oil fruits in the areas and indeed the project can succeed there,” then Agriculture minister Vincent Ssempijja said in 2018.
In May, minister Ssempijja launched oil palm growing in Buvuma. The area Member of Parliament, Robert Migadde Ndugwa thanked the government for considering Buvuma for the project. “Oil palm will diversify our economy and attract other transformational projects, which will lead to development. Government should extend to other areas as well,” he said. The Buvuma Island project will be established on 7,500 hectares with 5,000 dedicated to the nucleus estate while the rest of the land (2,500) will be for smallholder farmers.
The nucleus estate will be managed by Buvuma Oil Palm Limited (BOPL), a joint venture between the private sector, government and farmers.
Farmers in Buvuma are optimistic that the project will transform their lives.