Don’t keep your land idle, invest in tree planting

A move around Mbarara city and surroundings you will disappointingly see beautiful pieces of land lying idle with overgrown bushes and thicket. Being a real estate investor is not because you have that tittle or agreement for the land but you can think of adding value to that land or grow that investment (land).

Whereas land acquisitions remains one of the celebrated lifetime achievement, developing land at times remains a challenge that it may end up being idle for some time before one gets capital to develop it or prefers to wait and sell it later at a profit. But either way a landowner can cash on this land through a lucrative tree planting investment as he or she waits to either develop it or resale it.

Tree planting remains one of the lucrative investment in the country. The demand for wood and its products continues to increase now and again because of the growth of the construction industry. But also the supply for timber products continues to dwindle because of growing population rates that has reduced the forest cover. According to National Forest Authority the country’s forest cover to have reduced by 1.3 million acres for the last 15 years. With the demand for timber unmatched by supply, tree planting remains a lucrative business opportunity.

Investing in tree planting requires less capital for example in an acre land you can invest less than a million shillings which may include land preparations Shs 100,000, lining up and marking the points Shs 80000, pitting holes Shs 100000, Shs 50000 for weeds spraying before planting and killing anthills, Shs 70000 for planting, buying seedlings shs 315000, chemicals Shs 34285.

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The number of trees will depend on spacing for example 3meters by 3meters (450 trees in an acre), spacing 2.5meters by 2.5meters (640 trees in an acre) spacing 2meters by 2meters (1000 in an acre). And the cost may include roofing poles start from the minimum of Shs 5000-Shs15000 from the plantation depending on the distance and electric poles start from the minimum of Shs 100,000-Shs 120000 per pole from the plantation, depending on the distance, sizes/meters.

The maturity period for the trees differ and this may include for example timber from 8,9 and 10 years huge timber log, electric poles from 5, 6 and 7 years and roofing poles/scaffolds from 2-3 years.
And going by the above for example if an electric pole goes by average Shs 100,000 and in an acre you have 450 trees, it means in six to eight years of maturity you can earn over Shs 35 million.

Roofing trees take between 2-3 years, in acre you can plant 1000 trees on average Shs 5000 per care meaning you can be able to earn over Shs 5 million.
To successfully plant trees and profit from it one should be clear on the purpose to plant trees for it could be firewood, construction or transmission poles, timber or raw material for paper. The end products normally guide one of the tree species to be planted.

It’s also important to procure quality tree seeds and seedlings from a credible source. They are roadside nursery selling all sorts of trees but you have to be careful to buy the right seedlings. There are also maintenance interventions like weeding and pruning should be undertaken at recommended intervals (depending on species).

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Diseased trees should be eliminated and fires kept at bay to guarantee healthy trees, a bumper harvest and quality products like poles, timber and wood for fuel.
You have to also prepare land, buy seedlings on time especially in advance for the rainy season.

Some of the tree species you can plant include eucalyptus, pine, terminalia, and teak trees and each of these may have specific climatic conditions and area to facilitate its growth.

Note: Incase you want to plant trees in your land we have a contact who will do it for you at a very cheap price and hand you the forest when its all grown!