Kampala — IN one corner of his spacious compound, Stanislaus Kamanyiro has a giant grape plant now aged 30 years. "This is the mother of all grapes here. I harvest over 80kgs of grapes from this one plant," he said.

Kamanyiro of Nyakairu sub-county, Mbarara is the leading farmer of grapes in Uganda. He started growing grapes in 1978. In 1998, he expanded his business to over 600 other farmers, encouraging them to spare at least half an acre to grow grapes.

"I grafted grape seedlings and sold them at sh1,500 per seedling to farmers. At the end of each season, I would buy the grapes from them at sh2,000 and make wine at home," he said, adding: "Grapes are money makers and we refer to them as the golden fruits. Everything from grapes is healthy and brings in money."

A farmer can plant up to 920 vines in an acre of land and harvests between 80 to 100 kilogrammes per plant. In Kampala, a grape seedling costs sh15,000.

Kamanyiro says grapes are marketable. They cost sh4,000 a kilo in Mbarara and between sh8,000 and 12,000 in Kampala. However, he adds that the 'gold' in the grapes is in the wine because it can be controlled and has a longer shelf life.

"So, I am concentrating on making wine. Wine fetches more money and people are more familiar with wine than grapes," Kamanyiro said. A one-litre bottle of wine costs sh10,000.

Kamanyiro says one litre of wine is made from two kilogrammes of grapes.

A graduate of Ergton University in Kenya, Kamanyiro holds a diploma in agricultural engineering, a background that has enabled him think of the best ways of developing Uganda's first winery school and grapevine.

He has made a cask that squeezes up to 500 litres of juice. His winery is filled with jerrycans that he uses for processing and fermenting. But there have been challenges. Despite being sponsored to improve his skills in grape farming and wine production, Kamanyiro says the cost of value adding to the grapes is still an high.

"We need support to make quality wine and boost production. We lack chemicals, labour, transport and an expanded winery to handle increasing production from other farmers. Currently we produce 500 litres, but have capacity to expand," he said.

"I have a training school for other wine farmers to get the skills I have and expand their business, but I have no money to add value. The small winery I built was to encourage other farmers not to give up the business," Kamanyiro added.