Uganda’s Ministry of Agriculture Animal Industry and Fisheries is calling upon farmers to invest in avocado production. An on-going national campaign for increased avocado growing was launched last year in Mayuge District by the Minister of Agriculture, Vincent Ssempijja. He laid emphasized the growth of the Hass avocado variety because of its bigger export market. However, avocados generally are good fruits for all of us to eat due to their high nutritive value. They are now viewed as the new crop whose production could alleviate poverty and malnutrition.
Last week, Dr Barbra Mugwanya Zawedde -the director of research at Mukono ZARDI- stated that the Hass avocado has become a highly demanded fruit on the international market and that Mukono Zardi has been charged with production of the fruit’s seedlings for farmers to plant. Owen Sungura, the avocado project research officer at Mukono ZARDI, revealed that their target is to produce 600,000 grafted seedlings every year.
He also said that interested farmers from across the country will purchase each seedling at Shs5,000 which is a subsidized price and that the farmers growing the fruits will be monitored and assisted by National Agricultural Research Organisation (Naro) free of charge to come up with good results.
Source: monitor.co.ug