Zagenda finds gold in cocoa

Michael Zagenda (R) in a cocoa garden. Below are cocoa beans ready for market. PHOTO BY Tausi Nakato.

What you need to know:

  • Michael Zagenda, a 65-year-old farmer is reaping big money from cocoa growing-an activity he has been engaged in for 49 years.
  • He told Seeds of Gold’s Tausi Nakato that cocoa is more valuable than coffee. It brings in more money and you can harvest throughout the year.

Michael Zagenda, a 65-year-old farmer is reaping big money from cocoa growing-an activity he has been engaged in for 49 years. He told Seeds of Gold’s Tausi Nakato that cocoa is more valuable than coffee. It brings in more money and you can harvest throughout the year.

Many retired Ugandan civil servants are living off an unreliable pension from government or surviving on handouts from their off springs and relatives.
Others are living destitute lives. Some of these have been so lucky as to be some of the few who are benefiting from senior citizens’ grant which government has been running since September 2011, paying out a monthly subsistence of Shs23,000 to elderly and vulnerable people from select districts across the country.
Well, none of the above scenarios apply to 65-year-old Michael Zagenda, a resident of Ndiwansi village in Butagaya Sub County in Jinja District and a father of 12 who has turned his 10-acre cocoa farm into his provident fund.
“I don’t look for money. It finds me at home because of cocoa growing,” he says.
The beginning
The journey to this 49 year engagement with cocoa dates back to 1968.
Back then the Obote I government was encouraging farmers across the country to diversify into production of cash crops other than cotton and coffee, which were at the time the country’s two leading cash crops.
Both cash crops were doing well in Busoga region. Cocoa was not popular here, but one of Zagenda’s teachers drew his attention to a promotion that the government had launched in order to promote the cocoa growing.
“My teacher told me that government was going to give a car to every person found with 80 plantations of cocoa,” he recalls.
At 15, he did not have any land of his own, but the thought of owning a car at such a tender age was too exciting to strong a driver.
It was to his father that he turned, opening up his first 30 plantations of cocoa.
From the proceeds, he was able to buy his own land and transferred his activities there.
At first he combined cocoa growing with vending of clothes, but soon realised that the energy he was expending on the clothes business was not worth it. He is now fully committed to cocoa growing. He has never stopped.

Profits
Cocoa prices are prone to fluctuations. A Kilogramme is now going for between Shs4500 - Shs5000. In September last year it was going for between Shs3,000 and Shs4,000. A year before that it was at Shs8,700.
In a good season, Zagenda, harvests up to 600Kilogrammes of Cocoa which earns him an average of Shs3m per week. Harvests and sale occur almost throughout the year.
Zagenda said he sells his ready cocoa to Esco Uganda Limited and Olam Uganda limited. Both buy in bulk and for export.
In a good season, he can earn up to Shs3m per week. That can drop to between Shs800,000 and Shs1m during what he terms as a bad season.
“I describe my 10 acres of cocoa plantation as a bank, because every week I earn Shs3m, except during dry season. During a good season such as last year I earned Shs12m a month,” he says.

The farm
While the main activity is cocoa, Zagenda also grows coffee, banana and trees. He is also into piggery. In order to attend to all those activities, he has employed 10 people to help him get things done.

Achievements
Cocoa has turned into the goose that laid the golden eggs here. Zagenda has managed to build a house at his home in Ndiwansi village, three commercial rental houses in Jinja town and also acquired a commercial plot in Matugga, Wakiso District.
His other acquisition include a motorcycle and a commuter taxi, both of which he uses for business.
The farm has helped him raise money to pay his children’s tuition and maintenance at University and other tertiary institutions.
“When most people grow old they depend on their children but in my case unless they just want to give me as their father but I have enough for myself and I feel like the one to give them,” he says.

Challenges
According to Zagenda, the biggest challenge that cocoa farmers like himself are faced with is the fluctuation of prices and exploitation by middle men.
Through most of 2016 he says, the price of cocoa stood at Shs8,700 per kilogramme, but that fell to between Shs3,000 and Shs4,000 last year, a development which he partially blames on middlemen.
“These middlemen buy our cocoa at a low price and then they export it at higher price. They benefit from our sweat and for us we make a loss yet it is on high demand both local and on international market,” he says.
The situation is further complicated by poor harvesting methods, which are killing the market and vagaries of weather such as drought, which affects yields.

Future plans
The miserable pay that middlemen have been paying them has since forced cocoa farmers in Busoga region into embarking on a process of pushing them out. Under the leadership of Zagenda, the farmers have now formed the Jinja District Cocoa Growers Association. The association has more than 100 farmers who are now aspiring to directly export the produce.
“We have already registered it at the district,” he says.

Advice to farmers
Cocoa is not very widely grown in Busoga region, a situation which Zagenda blames on ignorance. He has for several years now been engaging people about the crop and offering them free advice on how to go about it.
He is also trying to encourage others to take to cocoa farming by providing them with cocoa seedlings and giving practical guidelines.

How to grow cocoa
• Traditionally cocoa grows under a shade, such as natural shades provided by other trees.
• So in preparation of the land for planting one should pick land with trees which will protect the cocoa from direct sunlight and strong winds.
• Transplant of the seedling should happen when steady rains set in or before the dry season begins.
• A spacing of three by three metres should be used which creates a plantation of 1000 trees per hectare.

Cocoa facts
• Cocoa takes three to five years to produce its first seed pods.
• Upon harvest, you should cover them in a box for six days, then the seventh day you put it on a tarpaulin outside for drying.
• It takes about 400 beans to make a kilogramme of chocolate.
• Cocoa contains flavonoids and when it is made into chocolate, it combats heart disease.
• In Uganda few farmers grow cocoa as most people think the crop is not economically viable.
• Other crops such as coffee have two harvesting season but cocoa every time is harvesting.
• Cocoa responds well in rainy tropical areas, with a maximum annual average of 30-32 0C, it thrives under shades and in areas with annual rainfall between 1,500mm to 2,000mm.