10/06/2009 (Daily Monitor) - Five years ago, some farmers in Kalangala District defied critics and planted palm trees on their land. They are about to reap from the risk they took.

The palm oil growing project which kicked off some five years ago in Kalangala District amidst heated criticism by environmentalists could result in huge financial rewards to the growers. At least this is the view of Mr Nelson Basaalidde, the manager of the out growers scheme.

He was part of the team from Kalangala District that has just returned from Ghana where palm oil is an important cash crop and he was full of praises for the potential economic gains to be enjoyed by palm oil growers in the long impoverished island district. “As farmers, we have nothing to complain about,” he said. “We chose to go into palm oil growing freely; we have not made any losses so far. We are just at the start of the harvesting stage, and according to what we observed in Ghana, we are set for great things.”

Mr Peter Abong, an official from Kalangala Oil Palm Growers Trustees believes that in future, more people will move to Kalangala to take advantage of the economic opportunities that are bound to come with the anticipated wealth from palm oil growing.

“The people here will be buying new cars and building fantastic houses,” he told a meeting comprising mainly the members of Kalangala District NGO Forum (Kadingo).

Mr David Mwayafu, the programme officer of Uganda Coalition for Sustainable Development (UCSD), a consultancy firm, had just read out the report findings of a the study they had carried out about the environmental impact of the $170m oil palm project on the island once famed for its rich forest cover, to Kadingo members. Some 10,000 hectares on Buggala Island, the largest of the 84 islands that make up Kalangala District, have been cleared of natural vegetation cover that was mainly forest to plant palm trees.

UCSD claimed that Oil Palm of Uganda Ltd, (Opul) was using agrichemicals indiscriminately, which when washed down the slope by rain water were endangering fish and other aqua life in the lake. It also accused the palm oil company of not warning the out growers about the likely food shortages as a result of devoting all their land to palm growing. The other issue was that the culturally important Luggo Forest from which the stave (Ddamula) of the Buganda Katikkiro is obtained was also mindlessly cleared by Opul.

The consultancy firm made lots of other environment-related accusations, none of which were accepted by Mr Stephen Magambo, KOPGT liaison officer. “Wherever you look at the edges of the Opul plantations, there is the mandatory lake border forest strip of 200 metres as per international environment regulations,” he said, adding that, “That is enough to purify the rain water before it gets into the lake.

Blame the dwindling fish numbers in the lake to bad fishing methods because the palm oil project is only here in Kalangala but the lake extends further and the fish shortage is reported all over.” With regard to the UCSD fears that the out grower farmers would be exploited since Opul is to be the only buyer of the palm oil, Magambo explained that the prices will be set by an independent pricing committee that is yet to be formed, comprising farmers’ representatives, Ministry of Finance officials and that they will compare favourably with international prices.

Each out grower farmer has a minimum of five acres under palm oil according to an Opul brochure. A farmer will harvest palm oil nut clusters every three months for up to 25 years and is expected to earn, at current rates, an estimated Shs5,684,000 from one acre every year. Mr Abong dismissed the assertion that the out growers had used up all their land to grow oil palm trees and were at the risk of food shortages. “We made sure they all reserved some land for growing other crops including food crops,” he said. “It was one of the conditions set for all members.”

A crude palm oil refinery factory has been built on the island and is near completion. The refined oil will be shipped to Bidco Factory in Jinja for the manufacture of cooking oil, soap, plastics, and other products.

The factory could offer employment opportunities but the UCSD report mentioned that Opul is already underpaying its plantation labourers, reportedly recruited from far off districts such as Mbale, Palisa and Kabale since the indigenous Kalangala residents scoffed at the Shs2,500 a day pay that Opul reportedly pays without housing. Abong however argues that Uganda doesn’t have a minimum wage law and that even if the people of Kalangala are not keen to work on the plantations, there are other people from elsewhere who are glad to take up the employment opportunity.