Vanilla farmers in Ntoroko threaten to uproot gardens

Vanilla farmers in Ntoroko District are counting losses over the drop in prices during the just-concluded harvesting season.

The farmers are now uprooting their gardens and switching to other high-value cash crops.

They say the low demand for vanilla and delayed harvests played a significant role in the massive losses. As a result, some vanilla crops began to rot before harvest.

The Ministry of Agriculture officially scheduled July 17 as the harvesting date for vanilla across the country. However, farmers from Ntoroko District argue that this date was delayed and the ideal time should have been June.

Mr Magest Masereka, a vanilla farmer, said during the previous season, farmers were selling a kilogramme of vanilla for Shs50,000, and the lucrative returns had encouraged more farmers to venture into vanilla cultivation.

Unfortunately, this season’s price was Shs7,000 per kilogramme, leading to severe losses.

“Personally, this was my first season, I had 2,000 plants of vanilla, during the season I had injected about Shs2 million to buy seedlings and over Shs1.5 million to look after the garden and I have made a lot of loss after the harvest,” he said.

Mr Masereka said he was considering abandoning vanilla for other cash crops such as cocoa, which currently fetches Shs11,000 per kilogramme.

“The date of the Minister for Agriculture scheduled for us to harvest was not favourable to us because by that time, some of vanilla seeds had started getting spoilt. We were supposed to start harvesting in June not July. Next time before the minister makes such an announcement, he should consult farmers to see if their gardens are ready,” he said.

Ms Dorothy Kyakimu, another vanilla farmer from Kyabandara Village in Karugutu Town Council, said she harvested only 87 kilogrammes of vanilla of the 300 kilogrammes she had anticipated.

“I have now decided to resort to growing maize because other people who planted maize are selling at a better price than me. I want to engage in maize growing so that I can get money to pay debts,” she said.

Ms Kyakimu said about 60 kilogrammes of vanilla were rejected in the market.

To sustain the vanilla farming industry, the farmers are appealing to the government to provide assurance that vanilla prices would remain stable.

“If we are to remain in this business government should give us an assurance that price will be stable above Shs50,000, how can prices get reduced from Shs50,000 to Shs7,000, this is unacceptable. Some famers were using money acquired through loans expecting to repay after harvest which is now hard,” she said.