Kampala — GEORGE Mugenyi, a farmer in Mabale II village, Kabarole district thought Aloe Vera crop was an alternative to traditional cash crops that had been badly damaged by pests and diseases.

"When our coffee and bananas crops were attacked by the coffee wilt disease and banana bacterial wilt respectively, we thought aloe vera would redeem us, bu how wrong we were!" Mugenyi laments.

After four years in the business, Mugenyi decided to cut all his aloe vera crop and replace it with bananas.

He has also planted vanilla, whose stems will need support from the banana plants.

At the same time, Mugenyi is growing tomatoes and apples which he believes will boost his income.

A bunch of bananas costs between sh4,000 and sh5,000 during the peak season and off-season, it costs between sh6,000 and sh7,000. A kilogramme of cured vanilla costs between sh2,000 and 3,000.

Mugenyi blames the people urged him and other farmers to plant aloe vera and then disappeared without helping them to find market. "The people who encouraged us to grow aloe vera have never come back to check on us. The profitability of the crop would be judged on these people's availability in the district, but they just vanished. To make matters worse, most farmers were not trained to handle the crop in the field and after harvesting," he lamented while taking a group of visitors around his farm.

He said his neighbours also picked interest in aloe vera growing and at one time, the seeds were not enough compared to the large number of farmers.

However, according to Ali Ssesanga, the chairman of the Uganda Aloe Vera Growers Association, farmers in Kabarole should blame themselves for having planted few plants under the guise of land shortage.

"It does not make any economic sense to drive to Kabarole to look for farmers who are so scattered. We gave them enough seeds and expected them to open up more land, instead they planted only 20-50 plants on small portions of land," Ssesanga explains.

He said today their members have cultivated up to 480 hectares of aloe vera and they are buying a kilogramme at sh350 and the flowers at sh1,000.

"In Kasese, you can find one farmer with about 3-4 acres. Why should we waste our time to drive to Kabarole where farmers have cultivated only small portionswho ?" he asked.

Ssesanga said on an acre, a farmer is encouraged to plant about 4,000 plants and this can earn him about sh20m annually. He said the association had acquired sh1b for setting up a processing plant in Luzira.

He said they encourage farmers to grow the Barbandesis species, whose demand is high in pharmaceutical companies worldwide. A seedling costs between sh1,000 and sh1,500.

Aloe vera grows well in most soils in Uganda. However, experts warn, the crop does not thrive in water-logged soils.

The sap extracted from aloe vera is believed to control blood pressure, diabetes and other illnesses. It is also used as an ingredient in cosmetics.