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I chose cocoa instead of IT

Zamu carries cocoa pods from her plantation. PHOTOS BY FRED MUZAALE

What you need to know:

Upon completing her diploma in Information Technology (IT), Zamu Mulindwa for a job when after trying without success, she invested in cocoa. Ten years later, she is happy she did so. Fred Muzaale talked to her.

I am Zamu Mulindwa, a commercial cocoa farmer in Lusera village in Kasawo-Namuganga Sub-county, Mukono District. I have been involved in cocoa growing for 10 years and currently I own 20 acres of the crop. I started growing cocoa in 2004, a year after graduating from Multitech Business School with a diploma in Information Technology (IT).

After graduation, I searched for a job in vain. I stayed with a relative in Kampala for some time but I found life without a job very hard. Even though we had family land in Kasawo (about 27 acres), I did not want to go back to the village to engage in farming.

Back to the village
In fact, it had never crossed my mind; it was not among the things I wanted to do as a youthful and educated lady. But as life became harder, I decided to come back to the village. When I got home and told my mother that I had failed to get a job in Kampala, she wept. But I told her that was not the end of my life.

In our village, there were families that had been growing cocoa since I was a young girl. From this, the farmers paid school fees and looked after their families fairly well. When I visited one of them, I found that he had received Shs1.5m from selling seeds to buyers. When I thought about the money he had received, I went back home and told my mother that I was also going to start growing cocoa like our neighbour.

Getting started
My mother thought I was joking. I also told my siblings about my idea and they welcomed it. The following day, we--my two elder brothers, sister, mother and I-- started clearing the land.
In three weeks, we had cleared about 15 acres. After ensuring that the land was well prepared, we dug holes of two feet by three feet with spacing of 10 metres by 10 metres. I went to one of the cocoa farmers to ask for seeds. He gave me 100 cocoa fruits. At home, we removed the seeds and immediately planted. It is advisable to plant the seeds immediately because they can dry and not germinate. Since the seeds were planted during a rainy season, we did not water them.

Weed-free
After only two weeks the seeds sprouted and when they were about a month old, I started spraying them twice a month with Cyper, an insecticide that kills insects that eat the leaves. I bought it at Shs25,000 a litre.
In addition, I applied a fertiliser called Nuslamin. It boosts the growth and when applied when the cocoa is mature, it encourages fruiting. A tin of this fertiliser is at Shs10,000.
I also ensured that the cocoa was weed -free by slashing. It is advisable to slash the weeds because hoeing can lead to root damage since cocoa roots grow on the soil surface.

Healthy growth
But when the trees grow old they form a canopy that can suffocate weeds, so there is less weeding.
When the trees were one and a half years, I pruned them to remove excess branches. I also did structural pruning to give the trees a healthy growth and good balance.
Pruning is important because when the tree fruits while it has many branches, some of the branches will break because they are weak. A pruned tree will also bear big fruits with big seeds.
At about two and a half years, fruiting began but when the soil is fertile, fruiting can start earlier than two years.
The fruit ripens two months after fruiting. Because the trees were still young, I began harvesting in small quantities. After harvesting the fruits, we cut the pods using knives.

First harvest
At the start, from the 15 acres, I got 1,300kg of fresh cocoa seeds. I sold the fresh seeds to middlemen who paid me Shs2,000 per kilogramme. In total, I got Shs2.6m.
These middlemen cheated me because I later discovered that the price for fresh cocoa seeds was Shs25,000 per kilogramme while that of dry seeds was Shs58,000 a kilogramme.
I sold fresh seeds because I did not have the equipment used in fermenting the cocoa seeds.
Fermenting is not only tiresome but time consuming. The buyers bought them from my garden so I did not incur any transport costs. I used part of the money to extend the garden and to pay workers who do the weeding.

Nursery bed
I started a nursery of 6,000 seedlings after discovering that planting seedlings was better than planting seeds directly. I use potting bags filled with loam soil, in which I put one seed in each of them. I put them under a shed and water regularly. The cocoa seedlings are at Shs500 each. Last year, I was contracted by ICAM Chocolate Ltd to supply 50,000 seedlings to farmers in Kasawo and Seeta-Namuganga Sub-counties. We earned Shs7m from this deal.

Pests and diseases
The most destructive is the black pod disease. This fungal disease results in the blackening, browning and rotting of the pods and beans. For control, I use Bidomil that I spray on the plants once a month.
Another fungal disease is the stem canker. It affects the stems. Milds, stink bug and termites and stem borers are some of the pests. They can be controlled by spraying the trees with insecticides.

HARVESTING
Harvesting of ripe fruits should be done carefully by twisting the fruit or by using a knife to cut it. Improper harvesting by pulling the fruit can damage the bark, where the fruiting takes place.
When the trees were three years, their productivity increased. During that time, I would harvest 1,500 kilogrammes every two weeks and earn about Shs3m. This made me and my family happy and it motivated us. My standard of living changed as I was earning good money. The biggest harvesting season is from September to December.

CHALLENGES
Since the roots grow almost on the surface of the soil, the biggest challenge is in the dry seasons when the cocoa trees dry up. Cocoa is highly susceptible to drought and I can lose about 60 trees during the dry season. Since I have a nursery bed, I keep on replacing the trees. I also mulch the garden so that water cannot easily evaporate from the soil.
The other challenge is the high cost and tedious work of weeding 20 acres. But I hope to buy a grass mower, which will make the work faster and easy. A small mower costs Shs900,000. The high cost of insecticides is yet another challenge because I spent about Shs600,000 on insecticides. This increases the cost of production. Lastly, because the trees have grown tall it has become a bit hard to spray them so I need a larger sprayer that can spray the tall trees. It costs about Shs1.5m.

MARKET
After some time, I found out that there are companies buying both fresh and dry cocoa seeds. These include Olam (U) Ltd and ICAM Chocolate (U) Ltd. I decided to deal with the later since it was offering tools and insecticides. The price they were offering was also good. They buy fresh seeds from me and pay cash. Since I joined cocoa growing, several farmers have joined it. Because I have experience, the company employed me to teach farmers in Kasawo and Seta-Namuganga sub-counties the proper agronomic practices. I teach about 500 farmers pruning, garden maintenance and proper sanitation as well as saving skills. From this, I am paid Shs250,000 a month. I teach them in the first and third week of every month. So, I spend the rest of the other time in my garden.

Advice

I am my own boss and my income has greatly improved. Even though I have an office given to me by ICAM Chocolate in Kasawo trading centre, I regard my cocoa garden as the best office. I no longer think of looking for a job. Through cocoa, I have been able to pay school fees for my siblings, some are at university. Since our father died, some of them had dropped out of school. Also, because of the other job I have been able to interact with people from all walks of life including those who own chocolate companies in Europe.