Photo showing improved tree nursery bed in Amuru District, Northern Uganda (Jalia Namakula)
Tree nurseries are places where tree seedlings are propagated, managed, and grown to a transportable size. They are essential for producing quality seedlings in high quantities for rapid afforestation and sustainable land management.
In response to promoting this technology among farmers in Uganda, the Government of Uganda, through its initiatives such as Operation Wealth Creation (OWC), is promoting the growing of high value crops such as fruit trees to improve farmers’ incomes and food security. The technology is established on a gently sloping land lying on a plot of 1725 square meters, some 300 m away from a wetland used as a source of water for the nursery during the dry season. The soils here, on observation, have high clay content and are relatively deep.
The activities for establishing the nursery involved three stages:
1. clearing the bush on site, destroying all the termite mounds, ploughing the area, and levelling the mother beds established on flat or gentle rolling area to avoid water logging during the rainy season
2. preparation of the potting area and the potting medium which was done by mixing black soil with sand and manure in a ratio of 3-1-1 respectively. These activities took 2 person days to finish, followed by potting in 5cm × 12cm potting bags, taking 10 person days. The pots were then laid in a series of 1×10m long beds with paths of 0.75m between them. This activity took 2 persons days. Seeds were planted, watered and pots were covered with grass until germination after 14 days. After germination the seedlings are left for 4 months to mature until they are ready for grafting
3. grafting the then ready root stock with desired scion. The process involves cutting the root stock and scion at an angle and fitting the two together and holding them tightly with a wide plastic thread, the grafted seedlings are then placed in beds and placed in a closed housing unit with enough humidity only to be removed after 21 days. The seedlings are now placed again in rows where they are managed until ready for transportation
Maintenance activities included spraying fortnightly with pesticides and fungicides, watering with clean water twice every week, weeding and regular sorting of the seedlings to encourage proper growth. If any shade was put it is removed when the seedlings are well established to acclimatize them to open environmental conditions before they are transplanted or sold.
The tree varieties planted include improved mangoes, citrus, clonal eucalyptus and pines. Currently the nursery has over 10,000 citrus seedlings and 15,000 mango seedlings and a few seedlings of both pine and eucalyptus.
Tree nurseries are preferred by farmers because they use small land sizes, generate a lot of income, seedlings, when planted protect the environment and help in rapid production of genetically improved fruit trees in addition to offering employment to a wide spectrum of people including unskilled and skilled persons. There are notwithstanding, challenges such as lack of reliable water source and lack of skilled labor for grafting and high nursery establishment costs.
Limited market opportunities continue to be limiting factors to the tree nursery initiatives with the government being the only big buyer of tree seedlings in North Uganda.
Location: Pajak village, Amuru District, Northern Uganda, Northern Uganda, Uganda
No. of Technology sites analysed: single site
Spread of the Technology: evenly spread over an area (approx. < 0.1 km2 (10 ha))
Date of implementation: 2002
Type of introduction
| Specify input | Unit | Quantity | Costs per Unit (UGX) | Total costs per input (UGX) | % of costs borne by land users |
| Labour | |||||
| Potting and Planting | People | 4.0 | 12000.0 | 48000.0 | 100.0 |
| Arranging pots | People | 1.0 | 50000.0 | 50000.0 | 100.0 |
| Preparing mango seeds | people | 4.0 | 10000.0 | 40000.0 | 100.0 |
| 100.0 | |||||
| Equipment | |||||
| Water pump | Piece | 1.0 | 1000000.0 | 1000000.0 | 100.0 |
| Wheel barrow | Piece | 2.0 | 80000.0 | 160000.0 | 100.0 |
| Watering can | Piece | 9.0 | 7500.0 | 67500.0 | 100.0 |
| Potting bags | Roll | 12.0 | 6000.0 | 72000.0 | 100.0 |
| Water storage drum | Piece | 1.0 | 70000.0 | 70000.0 | 100.0 |
| Plant material | |||||
| Seeds (Eucalyptus) | Kg | 5.0 | 30000.0 | 150000.0 | 100.0 |
| Seeds (Pine) | Kg | 10.0 | 10000.0 | 100000.0 | 100.0 |
| Seeds (citrus) | Kg | 4.0 | 60000.0 | 240000.0 | 100.0 |
| Seeds (mangoes) | Bag | 50.0 | 15000.0 | 750000.0 | 100.0 |
| Cyons (mangoes) | Piece | 15000.0 | 100.0 | 1500000.0 | 100.0 |
| Cyons (citrus) | Piece | 10000.0 | 20.0 | 200000.0 | 100.0 |
| Soil | Truck | 2.0 | 50000.0 | 100000.0 | 100.0 |
| Sand | Truck | 1.0 | 50000.0 | 50000.0 | 100.0 |
| Fertilizers and biocides | |||||
| DAP | Kg | 5.0 | 3500.0 | 17500.0 | 100.0 |
| Liquid fertilisers | Litre | 1.0 | 18000.0 | 18000.0 | 100.0 |
| Construction material | |||||
| Construction poles | piece | 50.0 | 3000.0 | 150000.0 | 100.0 |
| Grass | piece | 50.0 | 2500.0 | 125000.0 | 100.0 |
| Nails | kg | 3.0 | 1000.0 | 3000.0 | 100.0 |
| Polythene bags (6inch) | kg | 100.0 | 6500.0 | 650000.0 | 100.0 |
| Polythene bags | kg | 120.0 | 6500.0 | 780000.0 | 100.0 |
| Total costs for establishment of the Technology | 6'341'000.0 | ||||
| Specify input | Unit | Quantity | Costs per Unit (UGX) | Total costs per input (UGX) | % of costs borne by land users |
| Labour | |||||
| Watering | People | 5.0 | 3000.0 | 15000.0 | 100.0 |
| Weeding | People | 5.0 | 15000.0 | 75000.0 | 100.0 |
| Sorting | People | 5.0 | 1000.0 | 5000.0 | 100.0 |
| Strings | People | 2.0 | 8000.0 | 16000.0 | 100.0 |
| Construction material | |||||
| Poles | Piece | 50.0 | 1500.0 | 75000.0 | 100.0 |
| Grass | Bundle | 25.0 | 2500.0 | 62500.0 | 100.0 |
| Total costs for maintenance of the Technology | 248'500.0 | ||||
The farmer sold 25,000 seedlings and earned over UGX 37,500,000 ( USD 9,868)
The water used in the dry season is drawn from the pond constructed in a wetland close. However this is affecting the water flow to other neighbours using this water.
