Plant and maintain a 15-acre coffee and banana plantation for a sustainable food and revenue source

We plan to grow about 4000 banana trees intercropped with about 8000 coffee trees over about 20 acres of our land.

Bananas have long been a staple crop in Northern Uganda. They are consumed raw, cooked into fruit bread, or steamed and mashed like potatoes. Or, they can be sold for approximately $10 per stem at the local market. The new banana trees will produce fruit within about one year of planting.

Coffee is Uganda’s second largest export behind gold. The government has been encouraging coffee farming to Ugandans because of the high global demand. We received and planted 2000 Robusta coffee plants from the government. The new coffee trees will produce fruit typically within 3 years of planting. We have also purchased and started planting another 7000 coffee plants, a mixture of Robusta and Arabica varietals.

A tractor is our next big need to help with the planting and crop maintenance. Currently, all of this is done by hand or by hired animal-drawn plows.