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Crop production |
CASE IN UGANDA (MUKONO DISTRICT)]
by Wali Christopher Magala (Uganda)
Uganda, in the East African region, is a land locked country. It is bordered by Sudan, Kenya, Tanzania, Rwanda and RDC. It forms part of the Central African Plateau, dropping to the river Nile basin to the North. Much of the Territory to the South is in the Lake Victoria swampy marsh. To the East is Savannah and the western part of the country forms the borders of the equatorial forests, generally the south is agricultural and the north is pastoral.
Temperatures vary a little, with an equatorial climate modified by attitude. Rainfall, highest in the mountains and the Lake Victoria region reaches an annual average of about 2000 mm. Elsewhere it averages 1200mm, but the dry northern east and parts of the south receive up to 750 mm. The dry season varies between months of June, July and August.
The vegetation follows the rainfall pattern, with a mixture of tropical rain forests and high altitude vegetation in the central and western parts of the country, and then Savannah woodlands in the north and north eastern parts.
The temperature ranges between 300C on very hot days and falls to 170C on cold days. The population was projected to be about 24 million with an average of 49% males and 51% females according to 2002 census. At least 80% of the population are basically farmers.
It is located in the central part of the country, extending 7 Km from the city centre of Kampala towards the east, to the great river Nile and from the islands of Koome in L. Victoria in the south to Kayunga district in the north. (see map)
Temperatures range between 210C - 290C and annual rainfall is between 1100 mm to 1400 mm, with two wet seasons and no marked dry season. It lies at an altitude range of 1158 m to 1219 m above seas level.
The population according to the 1991 census was projected to reach 1,095,900 people by the year 2002. Population density is 183 people/sq Km with a growth rate of 1.92, having a total of 191057 farm families.
Vanilla (Vanilla Frugrans) is one of the high value crops grown mostly in Mukono District. It is a creeper vine believed to have been introduced into Uganda from the then ceylon in 1912. Commercial production started in the 1930s.
The vanilla agroforestry system is practiced in the banana -coffee zone of Uganda and integrated into the coffee, banana and home garden system. It is currently grown in areas close to L. Victoria shares in the Mukono, Mpigi, and to a lesser extent, Masaka , Kasese and Jinja districts.
Growing vanilla does not effect production of companion crops like bananas and coffee. It can therefore be grown as an additional crop to the main crops on the same piece of land
it is a high value crop with high potential to generate cash for farmers in rural areas.
vanilla can grow on a wide range of soils (best on loam soils)
the crop is easy to maintain and has few pests and disease at the moment.
In Uganda vanilla is often interplanted with other crops such as coffee and bananas.. It requires light shade (two-thirds to one-half of normal sunshine) a support to grow (e.g. tree like Jatropha curcas or Glyricidia), high rainfall (more than 1250 mm/year), and high humidity. While vanilla cannot grow well in dry areas, it does require a short dry season (2 to 4 months) to stimulate flowering. Where there is more than one dry seasons (such as in Mukono) two flowerings will occur.
These are categorised as physical, bio logical, economic and human resource related factors. These either positively or negatively influence the rowing of vanilla and other high value crops.
Vanilla is a tropical plant and thus suits best in the tropical countries. It requires good and reliable type of rainfall mostly (bi modal type) with a wet season and dry season for flowering and pollination. There has to be warm moist conditions with no extremes in temperatures that is ranging between 210C - 320C. It requires a microclimates and because of that it is grown under shade conditions.
Vanilla has long, whilish, aerial, adventitious roots so it is a surface feeder that requires light soil which is well aerated and free from water logging, so mulching is highly recommended. Vanilla does not require weeding with hoes because of the surface roots. If it is to be done, it has to be carried out carefully and mostly by mature or old people especially women.
Vanilla has to be pegged either with live stake or dry one. In Uganda vanilla is bedded on a live stake.
This is the most driving factor for vanilla growing. The prices are attractive and at present the market is available with several buyers around. The external buyers are from United States of America, United Kingdom, Switzerland, Germany, South Africa, etc.
The size of land holding is important because it determines the type of crops to grow and the area cultivated and the total agricultural production. Most of our farmers have 1 -4 acres, which explains the high level of inter-cropping. Some times there is a lot of over crowding and there is a likelihood that the soils are not getting enough moisture or are excessively depleted.
This was one of the vital factors identified and affects the aged male and female farmers. One particularly identified specific task of pollination which involves use of sharp pins or sticks to do it thus people whose visibility is not clear cannot pollinate and it requires a lot of movements depending on the size and number of plants to pollinate.
Beliefs and perceptions of farmers - Vanilla takes a long time that is 36 months to yield effectively. Thus therefore is limiting to some farmers who are interested in quick benefits. While some sections of feel that it is a high labour intensive crop compared to other crops.
Vanilla and Natural Resource management (NRM)
This looks at vanilla as an agricultural practice and the inputs used for production. Vanilla growing is adapted to agrisivi-culture, which involves a mixture of crops and trees. These have both positive and negative for Natural Resource Management (NRM).
Inter cropping - Vanilla can grow with coffee, banana, cassava, Jackfruit, and mangoes. The advantage with intercropping is that it diversifies income because after harvesting coffee, farmers harvest vanilla and also get money from fruits and food. These provide shade to the vanilla crop in addition.
All the farmers are using trees such as Albizia, Ficus, Jackfrit, Mangoes, Pawpaws, Callandra, Sesbania, etc. Environmentmental related benefits include provision of shade, protecting soil from agents of erosion, leaf fall act as mulch and organic matter and creation of a micro-climate.
The characteristic nature of vanilla as already explained points out to the fact that it is moisture dependant. This moisture is kept through mulching and the commonest forms of mulching used in order were grass (dry), banana leaves/fibres (dry) and to a smaller extent coffee husks.
The crop does not require use of chemical fertilizers. These have a negative implications for the soils as a natural resource. The use of organic fertilizers was seen to possess many advantages, but effective use of this requires proper preparation in order to obtain the required yields.
The farmers are aware that inter-cropping lads to high competition for minerals, space, etc. thereby leading to low production of certain crops. They complained that intercropping vanilla has led to a decline in production of bananas and coffee but some say it grows well with these two crops.
Some farmers said that where this livestake is planted the soil becomes dry because it draws a lot of water from the soil. some farmers further noted that vanilla does not yield well in areas where it had been grown before although other crops are not affected.
The major crops affected by the tree crops were mainly annual crops such as cassava, potatoes. This is because the vanilla crop thrives under shade, which cannot allow penetration of enough light for other crops to grow well.
This was attributed to vanilla in that farmers had to look for alternative areas where to grow annual crops since vanilla is a perennial crop.
One of the major inputs needed in vanilla production was mulches and/or organic manures. The means that a lot of organic manure has to be generated at household levels to sustain the gardens but What remains questionable is the quantities produced to ably meet the demands of vanilla if the gardens are big.
In terms of gender, controversial arguments are common. Men indicate that the women have benefited more while women indicate that it is the men who have benefited more. In one PRA for men and one for women, it was noted that men married more wives and produced more children. They are able to pay tax and look after their home confidently and save for buying alcohol.
Men reported that women have treated their hair, bought clothes, shoes, lipstick, eye pencils, Vaseline and changed their skin.
On the contrary, women from male headed households noted that they have not benefited much. This was because they did not have gardens on their own. The only benefit has been indirect that their children get school fees and food. They further complained that they perform all the tasks regarding the growth of vanilla but stop at harvesting. Men did the harvesting so that the women would not tell the exact Kilograms harvested.
Farmers reveled that vanilla is a labour intensive crop. The crop involve so many activities that is. mulching, digging holes, pegging, weeding, pruning, the big task of pollination and harvesting.
There is a problem of rain, immediately after pollination. Farmers reported that if the pollen falls, the yield is affected. The prolonged dry season sometime is a problem because it drives up the plants and sometimes because it drives up the plants and sometime the pollen falls off leading to low yields.
Some pests and disease were identified such as shoot rots, root rots and anthracnose but still uneconomical to treat.
This is surfacing as the major problem in the vanilla growing areas. Farmers reported that during the time of harvesting, they stay in their gardens for almost 2 months.
There is still limited research on vanilla production especially in the areas of the use of a live stake as the use of a dry stake, the upcoming pests and diseases and their control etc.
Vanilla is a crop that is grown under shade condition normally grown with tree crops and other crops. These trees are particularly vital in terms of enriching the soil through litter, nitrogen fixing, etc.
Vanilla is a crop that suits best the existing land conditions of small holder agricultural production. The fact that vanilla is grown with trees and other crops implies that it has positive natural resource management practices and also expands economic conditions of farmers.
Unlike in other countries, vanilla growing in Uganda relies on the use of organic manure particularly animal refuse and crop residues and has to be mulched since it is a surface feeder.
There are a number of factors that influence farmers to grow vanilla and these were categorized as physical, economic, land related, biological and human related factors. These factors are interdependent.
In terms of the labour relations, vanilla is a labour intensive crop because it involves many activities before it is harvested. This has necessitated more allocation of family labour although women's involvement is much more.
About the land value, many farmers indicated that the value of land has increased because of the benefits arising out of vanilla growing. The youths were pointed out to have bought more land than anybody else.
Promotion of vanilla - Vanilla contributes greatly to household incomes and is one crop that could minimize on household poverty.
Ways of increasing organic manure have to be sought in order to ensure constant supply to the gardens. There is need to encourage raising of animals so as to supply farm yard manure.
Need for research: there is need for more research in the effects of the live support plants (Jatropha) on soil productivity and eventual effect on crop production. Also research should be conducted on the right proportion of intercropping by considering the most appropriate plant population through spacing.
Better agrisylvicultural practices: It is vital to advise farmers on better crop and tree management practices so as not to affect production of other crops. This therefore calls for proper spacing and pruning for such crops as vanilla, coffee and other trees. Some of the tree leaves such as jackfruit, avocado and mangoes were reported to have negative effects on water percolation since they do not breakdown easily.
The existence of root diseases for vanilla further presupposes a phenomenon of poor natural resource management practices. In this way there is need to educate farmers about dangers of pests and diseases and proper resource management practices.
Local processing should be established to guard against heavy losses in case vanilla is not bought on time or fluctuation of prices for it is a perishable produce. There is need to consider planting wood lots for this local processing by the communities.
This paper was not presented during the workshop. The author explained the main contents of it during the field visit on October 18, 2002.
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