Collecting cash from organic farming

Her passion for organic farming is almost infectious

For years now, Ms Julie Matovu Nakalanda has been moving across the country and beyond its borders to promote the benefits of organic farming and improve her own organic farming practices.

Being an entrepreneur, Ms Nakalanda does organic farming not just for subsistence (food purposes) only but also for commercial purposes. And for that, she is transforming her life and for 35 more people she is working with on this project.

Getting started
Ms Nakalanda is one of the founders of Fresh Veggies where she is currently serving as the marketing coordinator. Her journey to commercial organic farming started way back in 2006 after returning from a trip to USA. While there she was amazed by the farms she saw and visited. And she wanted to emulate that here.
Four years ago after trial and error with several projects among them keeping rabbits, she decided to venture fully into growing commercially organic vegetables among other crops.
In 2011 she persuaded a group of women into venturing into this project with a motive that was not limited to empowering them economically but also geared towards raising sufficient volumes of the produce for the market.

Initial capital
Ms Nakalanda went into commercial farming with modest initial capital that was just about Shs25000.
In an interview, she said: “I don’t remember how much I had then but it was between Shs20000 and Shs25000 that I started out with.” She continued: “But all I remember was that I only wanted to do organic farming—that is all I had in my mind.”

Types of crops grown
She grows lettuce, sukumawiki also known as kale and leek, a type of vegetable, along with onion and garlic. This is supplemented by carrots, cabbages and pepper from her teammates. She also grows strawberries, but said she is growing it for seed purposes. The 3.4 acre land she is tilling is part of the family land where her father grows organic sugarcanes. Other organic crops include climbing beans and other traditional crops. They also rear fish on the farm.

Achievements thus far
“I am now a experienced organic farmer trainer. I am also a consultant.
Currently I am pursing my master’s degree in a related field—agriculture. I turned down a high-paying job in Harare, Zimbabwe because I wanted to be an organic farmer/entrepreneur and I am not regretting because I am much better and happier.”

Challenges encountered
“One of the biggest challenges is certification. Once we are done with that, then we can think of exporting. I also need an extra vehicle for transportation. Delayed payment is stifling our growth. And pest and diseases remain a problem that we have to deal with.”

In his presentation recently, the head of certification, particularly of organic products, Dr Charles Ssekyewa said: “Without certification it is difficult to distinguish between organic and non-organic products.”
He continued: “Certification of organic products is not expensive given its returns and it should not be considered as a non-tariff barrier (NTB).”

For local farmers, certification can be to a tune of Shs50, 000 and for exporters, the amount ranges between Shs7million to Shs13million depending on the project and volume. For those exporting within the region, they do not have to worry about the European or US standards as they will be subjected to the East African Community quality standards.

According to Dr Ssekyewa, besides certification issues, the other challenge is pest and diseases. Although he said this can be controlled through proper timing during planting season. This means that crops that are susceptible to pest and disease during hot weather can be planted early enough—before that period comes. And in worst case scenarios fungicides as opposed to insecticides can be applied to control diseases.

About organic farming
Organic crops must be grown in safe soil, have no modifications, and must remain separate from conventional products. Farmers are not allowed to use synthetic pesticides, bioengineered genes (GMOs), petroleum-based fertilizers, and sewage sludge-based fertilizers.

Future plans
Ms Nakalanda is looking at making at least Shs10million every week. Much as this is not easy, she says the sky is the limit for her given the potential that exists in the organic products market. She also wants to increase organic farm growers’ membership from 35 to 2000 and be the biggest producer of fresh organic vegetable in the country—with God nothing is impossible, she said.

Advise to women entrepreneurs
“Just follow your dreams. All entrepreneurs do so—follow their dream,” she said.
She continued: “And always go slow. Rushing aimlessly will kill your dream.”

Market and earning for organic crops

Although she did not divulge the details of her earnings she disclosed that in just one market day in a week and within just hours of trading she could earn between Shs150, 000-Shs300, 000. This means that if this happens every day of the week, she can earn between Shs1 million to Shs2 million after every seven days and between Shs4 million to Shs8 million every month.

Markets
Supermarkets are not her major markets. She doesn’t seem to like their payment model which most often is inconveniencing for an entrepreneur like her who needs operational capital of not less than Shs500, 000 readily available at all times.

“We create our markets. We try to be innovative and work through delivery schemes. We use our contacts and sell directly to people we know. We also take advantage of market days to make money,” she said. Because of the volume constraints, she is yet to start supplying foreign markets. But by next year around this time she said they would have started doing that given that there is already market waiting to be replenished.

The demand for organic product in Europe, particularly the UK has been growing by 15 percent every year, according to the Chief Executive Officer for National Organic Agricultural Movement of Uganda (NOGAMU), Mr Musa Muwanga.

And the US alone provides $3billion (about Shs8 trillion) worth of market for organic products annually while globally Mr Muwanga estimated the demand for organic food at $70 billion (nearly Shs200 trillion).
He said: “Market for organic products has never been a problem. In UK the demand is growing by 15 per cent per annum and in the US the market is even bigger. All we need to do is to strategise and just capture $1billion worth of the market and that will be a big leap for us.”

According to NOGAMU, so far Uganda only taps $250 million (Shs668 billion) worth of organic market out of the available $70 (nearly Shs200 trillion) or so billion US dollars globally. Well aware of the aforementioned market opportunity, Ms Nakalanda said with quality products, that market is not out of reach for her and her group.

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