Pawpaw Farming is Lucrative

This young and progressive farmer shared his
own story and experience working as
an entrepreneur and a self-made farmer, he
basically focus on pineapple and pawpaw
farming;

he as made so much success in his
farming business and now he shares his own
story, i hope you will find it motivating and
compelling to fast forward your own success
in your various agricultural businesses.

a pawpaw farmer

I am a commercial pawpaw
and pineapple farmer . I have been growing
these two crops for the last 10 years.

But before I took on these two ventures, I was
growing coffee as my main cash crop. But
after my coffee trees were destroyed by the
coffee wilt disease, I contemplated on which
crop I would grow to substitute coffee.

The destruction of my coffee garden brought
misery to me because it was my main cash
earner.

 

In 2004, I visited a friend in the neighbouring
Kyabazaala village, who was growing
pawpaw on a commercial scale.

I asked him how he was finding the crop and
he told me that growing the crop was very
profitable as it doesn’t require a lot capital in
terms of starting it and maintaining the
garden.

Because of the good things I had been told
about pawpaw growing, I decided to give it a
try. I started by renting one acre of land at
Shs1.5m for a period of five years.

I got a ripe pawpaw from which I got healthy
seeds, which I used to make a nursery bed.

The pawpaw seeds I got were of the variety
whose fruit is big with a yellow flesh. I chose
this variety because it has a longer shelf life
compared to the variety with red flesh. The
pawpaw fruit is big and tasty.

pawpaw truit

How I went about it
I dried the seeds in the sun. I got loam soil
mixed it with sandy soil to improve on its
drainage. I also mixed cow dung in the soil to
improve its more fertility.

I bought one kilogramme of polythene bags
at Shs2,000 a kilogramme from an agro shop
in Mukono Town.

I later put the soil and cow dung mixture in
the polythene bags. After that, I put two
pawpaw seeds in each polythene bag
containing the soil.

I made sure the seeds were well placed in the
middle of the polythene bags. In total, I had
200 bags.

Afterwards I placed the bags containing the
seeds under a shed, which I had made from
poles and banana leaves and grass. 

I used the
leaves and grass to cover the top of the
nursery bed.

The place where I put the
nursery bed was a bit raised to avoid running
water from washing away my seeds.

I watered the nursery bed once every day
and I was doing this in the evening or
morning when temperatures are low.

I did this in the evening or morning because
if you water them in the afternoon, the water
will become warm due to the heat and when
the plants take it, they wither.

After one
month when the seedlings had germinated I
sprayed them with Vegimax, which is a
fertilizer to make them grow healthy.

I also sprayed them with Dudu cyper to kill
insects that attack the leaves.

After two months, the pawpaw seedlings
were ready for transplanting to the main
garden. I ensured that the soil of the main
garden had good drainage to avoid root rot.

I dug pits of 10ft by 10ft from one line to
another and from one plant to another.

Proper spacing is important because if they
are not well spaced, they will just grow tall
and fruiting will be poor. I started with one
acre of pawpaw where I had 250 pawpaw
trees.

In the pits, I put some compost manure.
Because seedlings need a lot of water after
they are transplanted to grow well, it is
better to ensure that transplanting coincides
with a rainy season. 

This will also lessen the
work of having to water the plants.

Because pawpaws grow well when they are
weed-free, I mulched the garden using
banana leaves and grass. 

If weeds are left to
compete with pawpaw trees for soil nutrients
and water, the trees will just grow and
proper fruiting will not take place.

I didn’t spray any pesticides to kill insects
since the trees were healthy.

Since pawpaw mature very fast, at only nine
months I started picking ripe pawpaw.

But the harvest was still low because the
trees had not reached full production. Every
week I was harvesting between 750 and 800
pawpaw since I was picking two to three
fruits from each tree.

But when the trees were about one and half
years I picked five to seven every week from
each tree. My fruit is bought by traders from
Kampala, Juba, Jinja and Kenya who come
and buy them from the garden. 

I employ
people who harvest them when traders come.

In 2005, I was selling the pawpaw at Shs500
during the rainy season and at Shs1,000
during the dry periods. 

Today I sell them at
between Shs800 and Shs1, 500 for a big one.

Pawpaw prices go up during dry periods since
people tend to consume them a lot during hot
weather and less during rainy season.

Pawpaws grow through out the year so every
time I have something to sell.

But the main harvesting season occurs
between September and May.

 

During this period, the harvest is huge and
the price is high since during this period the
weather is hot and there are many festivities
like Christmas when the demand for fruits is
higher.

A pawpaw tree can last for as many as five to
seven years under good management. But
when it is very old, harvesting of fruits
becomes a problem since the trees are very
tall. Even then, he harvest is not very good.

So it is better to cut the old trees and plant
new ones which are productive.

From the one and a half acre, I got about
Shs27m in a period of three years. I used the
proceeds to buy my own land at Shs3m.

I also used Shs4m to start the pineapple
garden on land I had bought. Because my
pawpaw garden is a model farm in the area,
president Museveni visited it early this year
and was impressed with what I do.

He promised me a fruit processing factory so
that I can add value to my produce and earn
more from it.

Also Read: How to Grow Pawpaw, and Benefits of Pawpaw

Pest and diseases
The only disease that attacks my pawpaw is
the fungal disease that damages the leaves.

But its incidence is still low.

In a whole garden I can have only two leaves
attacked by the disease.

I use Dythene and Dudu Cyper to control it.
Dudu cyper costs Shs10,000 a litre while
Dythene costs Shs25,000 a kilo.

I spray them on the leaves after mixing it
with water.

Challenges
1.The biggest challenge I face is the fluctuating
prices of pawpaw.

2.Sometimes if it rains a lot the demand for the
fruit is very low so I have to harvest them
and give them to animals to eat. 

This is
because we can’t do anything when the
pawpaw ripens. But I think in the near future
we hope to get a factory which was promised
to us by President Museveni to start
processing them.

3.Secondly, getting people who work in the
garden is not easy.

When I get them they are very expensive.

4.Long dry spells also affect my plants since I
cannot afford to irrigate them. During long
dry periods, pawpaws don’t perform well so
the harvest is poor.

Achievements
The main achievement is that I have been
able to buy my own land which would make
me stop spending on renting land. I have also
been able to meet my family needs and I pay
school fees for my children promptly.

Future plans
I hope to expand on the acreage of my garden
since I am about to acquire a processing plant
that will enable me to add value to my
produce. 

I hope to plant 10 acres of pawpaw
and seven acres of pineapples. I also plan to
buy a lorry truck that will enable me to
transport manure and fruits to the garden
and market repetitively.

How to make pawpaw more fruitful
Pawpaws grow well in deep loam soil, rich in
humus with good drainage.

They are, however, adaptable and will
tolerate many different soils including heavy
clay or sand. They do not tolerate water
logged soils as this leads to root rot.

A farmer can use seeds from a ripe pawpaw
and use them to make a nursery bed. By
doing so, a farmer will not spend money on
buying seedlings.

The dry pawpaw seeds should be potted in a
polythene bag. 

The potted seeds should be
placed under a shed and watered at least one
in two days. 

When the seedlings are two
months, they should be transplanted to a
well prepared land whose soil should be
loosened to allow free movement of roots in
the soil.

Managing pest and diseases
Pawpaw is not very much susceptible to pests
and diseases apart from the fungal diseases
that affect the leaves by deform them.

Spraying of the affected trees with Dythene
and Dudu cyper which is an insecticide once
in a fortnight will control the disease.

Varieties
There are many pawpaw varieties but the
common ones grown by commercial farmers
in Uganda are the pawpaw variety with red 

flesh and the one with yellow flesh.

But the one with yellow flesh is the most
grown because of its big size and longer shelf
life. This variety can take about four days
before it perishes. 

And because of its big size
it fetches more money. Because of this,
traders like them a lot and are marketable.

On the other hand the variety with red flesh
has a short shelf life and by the time it shows
signs of ripening it would take only a day
before it perishes. 

This variety also has small
fruits compared to the other one.

Market
The market for pawpaws is growing steadily,
especially with the new market in south
Sudan. Pawpaws in Uganda are exported to
Kenya and South Sudan. 

The local market for 

pawpaw is also big especially in urban centers.
Ssemwogerere intercrops pineapple with
bananas.

I also own three acres of pineapple which I
inter-cropped with banana. In the three acres
I have about 25,000 pineapple and about 700
banana plants.

I started pineapple growing in 2006. I bought
the suckers I used to start the venture from
pineapple farmers in Kanguluimira Sub-
county, Kayunga District. 

I bought each
sucker at Shs100, so I spent Shs2.5m on
buying them. Seven months after planting the
pineapple, I inter-cropped it with banana. I
got the banana suckers from farmers in my
village, who gave them to me at no cost.

I planted varieties like mpologoma, kisansa
and mbwazilume.

These varieties produce big bunches of
banana and grow fast. I use coffee husks as
fertilizer in the pineapple and banana
plantation.

I buy truck of husks at Shs500,000 from
coffee factories in Kayunga District. Every
week I harvest about 5,000 pineapples which
I sell at Shs1,000 for the big ones and Shs600
for small ones.

In a month I earn about
Shs1.7m from pineapple while from banana I
can earn about Shs450,000 a month.

The customers for both pineapple and
banana are from Kampala, Jinja, Mukono and
Iganga. 

They come with trucks at my farm
from where they buy the produce at farm
gate price. When they buy from the garden, I
am saved the burden of incurring transport
costs to the market.

I also save time because I use the time I
would have spent taking the produce to the
market to work in my garden.

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