Most tomatoes varieties are ready for harvest 75 days from transplanting.

An acre can produce

around 25tonnes of tomatoes. With a conservative price of sh1,000 per kilogram, that makes
around sh25m. The harvest goes on for at least 3 months depending on how the farm was
maintained.Apr 10, 2018

7 of the Most Profitable Greenhouse Crops

 Tomatoes. The most common greenhouse crop, tomatoes can also be quite

prolific and, thus, profitable. ...
 Lettuce. ...
 Peppers. ...
 Cucumbers. ...
 Spinach. ...
 Herbs. ...
 Strawberries.
And it can be profitable. One greenhouse, with 700 plants, can generate $15,000 to $20,000
per year.” The cost of producing each tomato plant in a greenhouse is about $15 per year,
Hanna said.May 4, 2005

According to research, an acre can give you 4000kgs and taking the lowest price of 4000,
this will earn you 16,000,000UGX yet with less than 5000,000 UGX invested capital. The
market for onions locally and internationally is ever available.

Ugandan social worker juggles urban tomato

farming reaping big
20 Jan, 2020 | 22 comments
 By: Mkulima Young Team

 Matildah Nakanwagi farms tomatoes inside greenhouses as a side hustle that is not only giving her
good income but is also complementing her social work job

Mkulima Young correspondent

 
Rows of tomato plants heavy with fruits and grown in plastic bags line up Matildah Nakanwagi’s
greenhouses in Masanafu, some six kilometres from Kampala City Centre in Uganda. 
Some of the fruits are bright red, an indication that they are ready for harvest, while others are still
green.
Matildah holds one of the fruits and checks how ripe it is before smiling knowing that her clients
would be happy with her produce.
An urban dweller constrained with space for farm production, Matilda took the greenhouse route
that has enabled her earn handsomely from agribusiness despite her small land.
Her thriving farm that sits on 27 decimals downplays the notion that having a big chunk of land is
what one needs to get bigger harvest.
The social work and administration graduate of Kyambogo University said her passion is in
greenhouse and urban farming. 
“I completed my degree and knew this is what I wanted to do in my life and here I am,” she says.
Matildah was trained as a trainer of farmers by ISSD Uganda in partnership with Netherlands
Wageningen University. 
In the past four years, she has pioneered and trained several farmers in setting up and managing
greenhouses, as well as maximising on backyard gardening. 
“Every homestead should have a garden, however small it could be for food sufficiency,” she says.
According to her, urban farming connects people with their roots because they can farm just as they
can do in rural areas. 
“It’s an education for children at home as they grow up learning key skills in agriculture,” she offers. 
She notes that it takes a lot of skills to be able to grow food sustainably. “Farming is an art. We need
to push up agriculture so that it reaches a level where it is a profession like in the developed world
where farmers are respected just as engineers and doctors because the food that we eat is the most
important thing in our lives.”
Matildah, a social worker at MCAFs, where she also integrates agribusiness and trains youths, is a
consistent user of Mkulima Young platform to market her cherry tomatoes and green and sweet
peppers from her greenhouses, as well as training services. 
She believes digital platforms like Mkulima Young provide many opportunities beyond markets,
like learning from other farmers’ practices and connecting with extension workers. 
She has received a couple of purchases for her products through the platform as well getting
inquiries on her farming practices particularly, on urban farming.
She sells her produce at UGX 8,000 per kilogram of cherry tomatoes, sweet pepper and lettuce. 
“I currently farm on my parents land at our home but I am hopeful that I would soon get my place,”
says Matildah, who also engages in backyard gardening.

Click here to buy to buy Matilda's farm produce  here or to chat with her regarding her enterprise.
You want to be a Mkulima Young Member? Register here

Being  a member enables you to sell and/or accessing contacts for buyers seeking products. Also
soon you will get regional market trends and prices projection for various agricultural commodities. 

5 Crops that will make you a millionaire quickly

 Home -  Featured -  5 Crops that will make you a millionaire quickly

Everyone likes making smart quick money, Right?  Now if you’ve passion for farming but
with limited capital and land, the crops listed below have been tested over time and have to
be proved quick money makers. Giving them a try will definitely leave a land mark in your life
as the returns are overwhelming.
Onions:

Planting onions is simple as planting beans but the returns are huge. Normally, a kilo of
Bombay variety, one of the best varieties, costs4,000UGX to 5,000UGX when prices are
lower and higher respectively. According to research, an acre can give you 4000kgs and
taking the lowest price of 4000, this will earn you 16,000,000UGX yet with less than
5000,000 UGX invested capital. The market for onions locally and internationally is ever
available.

Watermelon:

Are you aware that a big watermelon can cost 15,000UGX? The demand for watermelon is
present in many towns in Uganda.  Smart middlemen are exporting them to Kenya and
South Sudan for better prices. If you can be a regular supplier of melons, many hotels and
restaurants in Kampala are ready to welcome you. You can make 50,000,000UGX in three
months from just growing two acres of these simple creepers. The estimated capital
requirement is 10,800,000UGX. “When buyers find me in my garden, a small melon goes for
less than a dollar while a big one goes for 10,000ugx,” an experienced farmer says.

Pumpkin:

Pumpkins rarely miss on the menu in almost all hotels and restaurants you know in
Kampala. But what’s surprising, you rarely come across a garden of pumpkins. This is a
“virgin” area awaiting exploitation.  A single plant of pumpkin can produce over 100
pumpkins.  It is advisable to buy a pumpkin with a hard shell from markets and get out
seeds to plant. An acre accommodates 784 holes. Each plant will produce between 10-30
pumpkins. The least price a pumpkin sells on the garden is 2000ugx.  Considering 15
pumpkins as the average per plant, this translates into 23,520,000ugx with an investment
capital of about 5,000,000.

Passion fruits:

An acre requires 600-800 plants. Planting materials cost 2000 and 50,000 for unspotted
and potted ones respectively. Currently, a bag of local purple is selling at 600,000 in local
markets while the Kawanda type is selling 300,000ugx. In a well-managed acre, Kigoye, an
expert, says a farmer can collect two to four bags of fruits a week for a period of 12 months
for the two seasons. Taking two bags as the average, it translates into 96 bags of harvested
passion fruit. And, taking 500,000 as the average price per bag, a farmer would earn
57,600,000UGX.

Tomatoes:

Sauce without tomatoes is not sauce to day! Even if it’s not fresh tomatoes, at least tomato
sauce extracted from tomatoes will be applied. There are testimonies of people who are
rich because of tomatoes.  To get maximum yield, one needs to be near a source of water
like a river so as to grow tomatoes even in dry season, when the prices shoot up. If you
don’t have land near Kampala, don’t worry because you can rent it at affordable rates. You
just need to get a few tips from successful farmers and experts to kick start your poverty
eradication campaign by growing tomatoes. With an investment capital of 1000000ugx you
can earn about 7,600,000ugx  if you sold at the lowest price.

Tags:

An average eight by 30 meters greenhouse cost above Sh200,000 but local makers are

managing to make the same sized greenhouse at even Sh50,000 a phenomenon that has
become popular with the local farmers.Jul 5, 2016
By Abbey Kazibwe

I am practising greenhouse farming and I do not regret taking it up. With each passing day, I realise that
this type of farming is the way to go for Ugandan farmers if they are to benefit from farming.

My experience shows that greenhouse farming is as easy as ABC. All one needs is putting a few right
things in place.

I have three greenhouses of 15x8 metres wide in which I am growing tomatoes at my home in Nansana.
I set them up as a ‘backyard farming’ project, but the proceeds far exceed those of most full-time large-
scale commercial farmers.

I got inspired to get into green house farming when I visited Kenya a few years ago. I found out that
many Kenyans in Naivasha and Nakuru were earning big from small, but intensively used spaces at the
back of their houses. Most city dwellers in Kampala have got even larger space, which is unfortunately
not utilised.

You can grow any vegetable in a green house, including tomatoes, which I have now, cabbages,
eggplants, onions, sukuma wiki etc.

Advantages

Little space needed

You need as little space as the one in your backyard. I put two of the green houses in the compound of
my fenced-off house. This space is normally left idle in many homes.

Controls pests, diseases

Greenhouse farming curbs most pests and diseases.

It is difficult for pests to invade greenhouses because scientifically, most pests move with either water or
direct sunshine, but since the structure does not receive any of this directly, pests are kept at bay.

My own experience shows that although I planted the tomatoes 10 weeks ago, they have not been
affected by disease.

High production rate

Your crops can yield 100 times more than those grown under open or ‘normal’ conditions. While
tomatoes grown in the open yield 40 tomatoes, green house tomatoes can yield up to 200 tomatoes of
an average 120g.

Yields anytime

Since crops grown in green houses depend on irrigated water, you can harvest the commodity at any
time of the year. In other words, you can turn it into a full-time job.

Hygiene

Crops grown in green houses are much cleaner compared to those grown in the open that have
scratches, hence lowering their market value.

Multiple harvest times

Tomatoes grown in greenhouses can be harvested three times longer. For instance, I will harvest
tomatoes for the next 10 months.

Farm anywhere

You can farm anywhere because their growth does not depend on the surrounding environment.

What you need

Use local materials, especially for the basic role of holding the special polythene sheeting together.

I use eucalyptus poles to construct the main frame, on which I have covered the special polythene
setting.
In simple terms, a 15x8 metre shelter costs not more than sh3m, including labour and an irrigation
system.

However, the cost may increase to at least sh3.5m if you include the seeds, fertilisers and pesticides. On
the other hand, a fabricated shelter costs at least sh6.5m. Also, look out for seeds specifically created for
green houses.

It is cost-effective

People generally think greenhouse farming is too expensive. However, what actually seems expensive is
the initial investment in buying the materials for the structure.

However, these expenses are easily offset by the high yields that a farmer makes from the investment.

For example, in 10 months, a farmer will averagely harvest 10 tonnes of tomatoes from a 15x8 piece of
land. At the current price, a kilogram goes for sh2,000 in most super markets across the city, giving the
farmer sh21.6m.

If the initial investment was sh3.5m including the drip irrigation system, with his yield, a farmer has
recovered the investment in just one harvest and got abnormal profits. The materials that make the
shelter have a lifespan of at least three years. For instance, by the time I examine my shelter, I will have
made over sh63m. It sounds like a dream, but in countries were green house farming is heavily
practised, it is a reality.