Okee invested his retirement benefits in a tree nursery

George Achelame Okee covers his nursery bed with a papyrus mat to shelter the seedlings from the sun. PHOTOs BY JOEL TOOYERONGA

When George Achelame Okee, 67, retired as an agricultural officer 1995, he ventured into the corporate world before hanging his boots.
His dream was to establish a large scale tree (eucalyptus) bedding farm in his village in Palaro, Gulu District but due to land wrangles, he put his project on hold. “When I retired, I was not scared, I knew there was a goldmine in seedlings waiting for me,” he shares.
Rather than just keep his retirement package in the bank, Okee decided to put his acre piece of land in Laroo Division, where he lives with his family, to good use. He decided to put an eucalyptus tree bedding. “After waiting for 20 years, I decided to use the available resources to live my dream,” he says.

Starting out
He invested Shs2m to get the project off the ground. Okee bought 10 kilogrammes of folded bags each at Shs150,000, 35 papyrus mats each at Shs35,000, five bunches of bamboo each at Shs4,000 and some poles to make nursery beds. With his agricultural background, Okee was able to get seedlings from old eucalyptus trees as well as some South African varieties. Through these efforts, he has so far produced 10,000 eucalyptus trees both local and South African species.
He started with three nursery beds of 1.2 lengths by 20 metres (1.2x20) but currently he has eight and half nursery beds measuring 1.2 metres width by 20 metres length (1.2x20).

Maintenance
Okee who personally supervises the nursery beds says he weeds regularly to ward off unwanted plants. He also prunes and uses chemicals such as ant killer to prevent termites from encroaching on his seedlings. Okee also uses copper to control coldness that can cause the outbreak of dump off disease.
He uses water connected to his compound and sometimes from a nearby stream in case there is no tap water to water the plants. The watering is done twice a day in dry season and once a day during rainy season.
“I make sure that I supervise this myself to ensure that it is done to specifics,” Okee shares.

Market
Okee says his main market is Gulu Municipal Council as well as tobacco companies that supply seedlings to their farmers. There is a government policy for tobacco companies to supply tobacco farmers with tree seedlings to avoid forest encroachment.
“Tobacco farmers have been given five years and after that period any farmer who will not have trees in his farm will not be allowed to grow tobacco in Uganda. As a result, I have been assigned to supply tree seedlings to tobbaco farmers in this region,” he says.
He sells each seedling between Shs300 and Shs500. He knew he was poised for greater heights when he bagged Shs800,000 as profit on his first venture.

Benefits
The trees mature in two months which ensures that he has seedlings all the time. In a good month, he can make Shs1m. “The small farm has made me popular among the people in the community and the district at large” he says.
He has been able to create employment for himself even after retirement and through this project he gets people who pay him for consultations on nursery beds and seedling making. His only regret is having started the project late.

Challenges
The materials he uses for making the nursery beds, labour force, and chemicals are expensive.
The eucalyptus seedling consumes a lot of water so it requires him to water twice a day, morning and evening which makes it expensive to pay water bills and drawing water from the well during drought is hard.
All the materials such as paper fold cannot be accessed in the region so it requires him to travel to Kampala to buy them, making him incur transportation costs.

Prospects
He wants to establish a forest of pine and eucalyptus trees. Okee plans to begin producing fruits seedlings such as mangoes, avocadoes, and oranges among others. Tree seedlings such as pine and eucalyptus are disappearing in northern Uganda due to continued deforestation.
Okee wants to be enrolled as a supplier under Operation Wealth Creation (OWC). He also wants to establish a modern seedling farm in Gulu Municipality.

Advice
He advises fellow retirees to use the little they have to create impact. Okee says the mindset of “government should bail us out” cannot work because the government is overwhelmed with serious national matters.
“The people in service should learn to save some money which will help them during retirement period,” he says.
“The people of northern Uganda should use the fertile land God gave them in the right way because wealth is in land so they should stop over drinking but fight with the land to produce agricultural products,” says Okee.

Labour
He says at the beginning because it is a big project, he hired five casual labourers that he would pay Shs30,000 per month. When he mastered the art, the work load reduced he started hiring part time labourers that he pays according to the work done.“These labourers fill the folded bags with soil and place the plants in a nursery bed,” he shares.
To minimise on costs, Okee has co-opted his family into the workforce. These help with weeding and pricking.