From a scientist to agro-entrepreneur

Dr Arinaitwe in the trial plots. PHOTO BY LOMINDA AFEDRARU

What you need to know:

The company has a research section, where the plants are monitored under various light environments as well as for observation of photosynthesis

The East African Highland banana (matooke) is one of the most produced and consumed food crops in Uganda. In addition, there are also several other banana varieties used for brewing local beer and making juice.
Because of its significance to agriculture, scientists at the National Agriculture Research Organisation (Naro) are engaged in breeding varieties to counter various threats to banana production.
One such method is tissue culture where banana plantlets are produced from the roots, leaves and stems.
Dr Geoffrey Arinaitwe, an agricultural scientist at National Agriculture Research Laboratories (NaRL), has since added to this the hat of an entrepreneur.

He is applying tissue culture to other vegetative propagated crops such as sweet potato, passion fruit, apples and medicinal plants.
He is doing this in a privately owned tissue culture laboratory in Kiteezi, Wakiso District.
On completion of his PhD at Catholic University of Leuven in Belgium, Dr Arinaitwe was encouraged by a friend Moses Twinomugisha, a business consultant, to take a course in business administration. This would enable him practise science as a business enterprise.
“In 2009, I enrolled at Uganda Management Institute and my friend paid the initial tuition fees but I continued and completed a Master’s,” he recalls.

“This is when I thought of agricultural research is not enough if we don’t link it to industrial development”
His company, Bio crops, was started small and in two years, that is 2009, it started selling its produce mainly tissue culture banana plantlets.
It stared in a boys’ quarter of Dr Talengera’s residence in Kanyanya, a Kampala suburb. Now, it is located on two and half acres of land purchased by the two proprietors in Kitezi.
The major focus is in banana breeding simply because most farmers in central and western parts of the country engage in growing the crop and they are the major target in the marketing system.

The first sale was 2,000 seedlings at Shs2,500 each. Current production is 70,000.
The tissue culture laboratory eventually expanded to cover sweet potato varieties namely Naspot II, Kakamega, Ejumula and Vita. A seedling is at Shs1,000 each.
Others include 36,000 plantlets of passion fruit, bred on order for NaCRRI. Each will be sold at Shs2, 500.
There is also cassava, which is under research as well as apples. Another subject of study are medicinal plants.
“We focus on mass production in order to meet farmers’ needs not only in Uganda but East Africa and beyond,” Dr Arinaitwe says.
“We do this in partnership with Naro, NGOs involved in the agricultural value chain and development partners.”
Dr Arinaitwe employs agricultural scientists, social scientists and budding entrepreneurs who are willing to learn on job and go on to form their own innovations.

The company has a research section, where the plants are monitored under various light environments as well as for observation of photosynthesis.
The assessment is that there should be 20 per cent green light and 65 per cent blue and the rest of the colours all constitute to good growth of the plant. The LED lights each cost $72 (about Shs241, 920).
Statistics from Naro indicate Uganda is the second largest producer of bananas in the world after South East Asia.
The country produces over 8.6 million tons per annum, which is 30% of the world’s production.

However, an unprecedented incidences of diseases such as the banana bacterial wilt has been a major threat since 2002. And scientists say the disease cannot be controlled using rudimentary methods to limit its spread.
NaRL has been the only source where to get clean tissue culture plantlets, which is the reason why scientists are now setting up private laboratories to complement this effort in meeting farmer demand. The other such initiative being Agro-Genetic Technologies (AGT) in Buloba, also in Wakiso District.