04/07/2008 (Africa Science News Service) - Oil palm is a new cash crop being re-introduced in Africa, and Uganda has taken the lead in the region, through a project that has not only started changing the livelihoods of people on the Islands, but also to rehabilitate the deforested land, due to human activities around lake Victoria.

On the commercial scene, East African countries will soon cut down on the money spent each year on importing vegetable oil through the Kenyan port of Mombasa as Uganda starts local harvest of fresh fruits of palm oil in June next year.

It will be refined and sold to its neighbouring countries. Palm oil is an important vegetable oil rich in vitamins. It is also used in industries for soap production and other olio chemicals

However the oil palm growing is to save lake Victoria from depletion from over and indiscriminate fishing that has seen the lake running out of a major export.

Kalangala district has an estimated official population of 36, 000 people occupying 84 islands and have for hundreds of years relied on fishing as a source of income. 

With the current increased food prices, the number of fish on Lake Victoria has drastically reduced, amid challenges of climate change and pollution of the waters.

The local council chairman for the district Daniel Kikola says seven fish factories in the district have so far closed down due to lack of fish.

The fishing has not only had a negative impact on the lake, but has been a major contributor of HIV/AIDS infections. 

Fishermen have used the money they get from selling fish to entice young girls and women sexually along the shores hence spreading the deadly disease. 

The fishing community is categorized as one of the most at risk groups spreading AIDS and I contracting.

Charcoal burning and lumbering are other forms of environmental degradation practices that people on the Island have dwelled on to earn a living.

But this will soon reduce as oil palm reclaims open land. The ten thousand hectare land of oil palm on Bugala Island on Lake Victoria will see Uganda saving USD60 million spent each year on importation of crude palm oil from Indonesia and Malaysia, and instead turn it into a regional exporter.

But the most appreciated fact is that the oil palm project is an alternative source of income, which has seen the locals gradually abandoning fishing to plant oil palm, with full funding from IFAD.

"This is an import substitution project that will stop the importation of vegetable oil. The money will be diverted to other sectors like roads, Information Communication Technology, health among others." 

Says Connie Magomu Masaba, the project coordinator, Vegetable Oil Development Project, in the Ministry of Agriculture, Animal Industry and Fisheries.

The general manager for Wilmer Plantation Services ltd, running the nucleus estates in Bwendero Lim Chuon Meng says the processing plant will cost about 10,000 US dollars.

Wilmer is one of the consortiums members in the project currently employing more than 1,500 people in the estates. 

"The fresh fruit bunches must be processed within twenty-four hours of harvest and that is why the plant must be placed near the farmers. The crude oil will then be transported to the refinery in Jinja." Says Lim.

The oil palm project being run by BIDCO oil refineries started in 2003 and so far 588 farmers are supplementing the production as out growers.

The number of out growers is expected to reach 2500, says Nelson Basalidde, the chairman of the Kalangala Oil Palm Growers Trust. 

It takes three to four years for the fruits to be ready. A farmer will expect to harvest up to eighteen tons of fresh fruit bunches from one hectare and at the current price of 425 Uganda shillings per Kilogram, he earns eight million shillings which is about $ 5000 USD.

The first oil palm trees under this project were planted in 2005 and have started bearing fruits. The first trials for oil palm in Uganda were done in 1972, but according to Connie Masaba, it took this long to start growing oil palm because researchers were still analyzing data, and also given the political history of the country, instability has come a long way.

Oil palm is said to have originated in Africa and exported to Malaysia for ornamental purposes.  "The crop is just finding its way back and in Uganda we have taken it on and we are targeting 30,000 hectares."

She says. Currently Malaysia and Indonesia are producing over fifteen million hectares of oil palm. Besides Uganda, Ivory Coast is the next African country where the project is to be introduced beginning next year, says Lim Chuon the manager Wilmer Plantations Services.

The project has for the last two years faced several criticisms from politicians and environmentalists.

Among the environmental concerns were that the oil palm is a mono-crop and therefore would affect the biodiversity of the forest.

Another concern was that the fertilizers being applied on the plants would end up into the lake and pollute the water, and that natural trees were being cut down for oil palm.

But Connie Masaba says there is a two hundred meter buffer zone along the lake to protect it from depletion by farmers.

She goes on to say that the plantations are protected with nitrogen fixing legume cover crop that protects the soil from being washed down into the lake.

The district chairman Daniel Kikola says the project occupies just a third of the total 432 square kilometer land that makes up 84 islands. 

Bugala Island he says has 75 square kilometers of intact forest reserves that cannot be tempered with.