Kikondo, UG – VICOBA member starts a nursery business – 15 Jan 2021

The KIP family was one of the last families to join Wamukisa back in 2019. In 2020 KIP father started his own tree nursery, and later expanded it with assistance from investors. He started with avocado and is now expanding to eucalyptus trees.

For the avocado nursery, he first grew seedlings from seeds. He then grafted lower branches from an older avocado tree onto the seedlings. Grafting is a process where a budding branch is cut from a tree that bears good avocados. The branch’s base is then chamfered and inserted into a split that is cut in the end of a seedling’s root stock. This process dramatically decreases the time it takes for a tree to begin generating fruit from 10 years, when grown from a seed, to 2 to 3 years when grown from a graft. It also makes the quality and quantity of avocado harvests much more predictable. Some avocado trees grown from seeds do not bear fruit or very little!

Consequently, KIP is able to sell his grafted avocado seedlings for 8,000 UGS ($2.22 USD) each and has sold up to 30,000 UGS ($8.33 USD) daily! KIP’s avocado trees caught the eye of some investors, who invested in a greenhouse and water system so that he could expand his business.

KIP now wants to expand his market by adding eucalyptus trees to his product line. People have been frequently asking for this decorative tree!