The Ugandan Ministry of Agriculture has intensified research on the viability of Hass avocado farming in the different parts of the nation. Dr Hillary Agaba, the Director for Research at the National Forestry Resources Research Institute says that Hass avocado is believed to be one of the highly profitable crops which have attracted a constant surplus demand in the international market.
Agaba claims that Uganda aims to produce a million avocado seedlings over the next twelve months, which will be given out to farmers at a subsidized fee. However, more studies are required to ascertain how local farmers can easily harness this opportunity.
Agaba explains that they have since set up a 10-acre-avocado model farm to act as a gene bank for some eleven avocado varieties. This will be inspected by different agronomists to conduct viable studies on the possible pests and diseases responsible for deterring the maximum productivity of the crop.
According to dispatch.ug, Dr Agaba has stressed that most farmers earn low yields during the first harvests and their research is mainly aimed at identifying such gaps so that the farmers can be linked to highly productive seedlings. These should save them from suffering embarrassment resulting from product rejects on the international market.