Agrotourism

Agro-tourism/ Agritourism/ Agricultural Tourism Safaris 

Wikipedia defines Agritourism or agrotourism, as any agriculturally based operation or activity that brings visitors to a farm or ranch. In other places, agritourism, might also involve a little bit of volunteering.  Whereby the tourists stay for a number of days at the farm to volunteer and also learn about agricultural practises.

Uganda agrotourism encompasses a little bit of both. One can choose to make day visits to different farms and the other can choose to stay at the farm or plantation for a number of days. Uganda has a number of farms, agricultural and forestry sites that can be visited whilst on your Uganda trip. We can organise for you to visit, banana plantations, Tea plantations, Pineapple farms and processing plants, Vanilla farms, Api-culture farms and so much more.

Agrotourism safari options; 

Find below a description of different agricultural farm options, that  you can visit during your Uganda safari.  Note; if you have another farm that is not listed here but would wish to visit, this can be organised too.

Katende Harambe Agro Farm;

Located close to Kampala city in Kyaliwajala, Katende Harambe is a family owned farm that gives you an insight into Uganda’s subsistence/ sustainable agriculture. A visit to the farm, will give you an insight into small holder farm production. Also into storage, water harvest, improve livestock farming, crop husbandry, making of manure and so much more. Visits should be book at least 3 days in advance and you will be taken through farming on a small piece of land.  Adding a day to visit Katende Harambe farm on your Uganda holiday is worth a lot.

Visit the organic Pineapple Farm.

Are you a fun of fruits including pineapples?  A visit to the organic pineapple farm is the best trip option . The farm is located in  Luwero just 1 hour away from Kampala city centre. The visit to the farm, will allow you go pineapple hunting.

Uganda has some of the sweetest pineapples you will ever taste on planet Earth. Learn how these pineapples are dried without losing nutrients and adding any preservatives. The processing plant also dries other organic products like the bananas. All these final products exported to markets like Japan, EU and USA. Spend your day on the farm and learn more about organic farming, you also get to go hunt for ripe pineapples and take one home.

Join us on our exciting Pineapple farm tour to learn and experience the pineapple growing and the process to make the best Organic Ugandan dried pineapples! You will learn about the pineapple For more information about this visit contact us.

Tea Plantations;

The Kahangi tea estate is one of the best farms to visit whilst on your agro tourism safari. Kahangi Tea estate is one of the oldest estates in fort-portal, opened in the 1930’s.  Located on the foothills of the Rwenzori mountains also referred to as the mountains of the moon, the farm borders Kibale National park. Kahangi is also committed sustainable land management system to preserve and protect the forest.

The farm grows tea and also Arabica coffee and it is also involved in processing of other products.  Other products include;  Castor oil, Coffee oil, sunflower oil and other essential oils used in making skin products.

A day visit to this farm, will teach you about sustainable tea farming, harvesting, processing and also marketing of tea products. Of-course at the end of the day, you will have to taste some of the tea and coffee that the estate processes.  This agro tourism day trip can be organised in addition to your chimpanzee trekking safari in Kibale forest park.

Vanilla agrotourism Plantations

Visit the Ndali vanilla plantation while on your agrotourism safari. Or you can visit that of other organic farmers in Fort portal for Vanilla that grows under banana plantations, mangoes trees, Ovacado trees and so on. All these plantations are as organic as they can get.

Vanilla growing is a whole load of work but the products are worth the efforts. For example the vanilla flower is hand pollinated. This involves using a pin or whittled stick to separate or remove the rostelum that separates the stigma and anther that bears pollen. The thumb and forefinger can gently squeeze the male and female parts together.

The whole process of pollination has to be done within 8 hours of the flower opening. After the hand pollination vanilla can be harvest 9 to 11 months later.

Obtaining the vanilla extract is a whole load of process that you should take part in. Please note that at the Ndali Vanilla Farm, they produce extracts that are far much concentrated compared to the essence found in most supermarkets.

The visit also takes the agritourists through the process of making ice-cream using the vanilla extract. Taste some one of the best vanilla ice cream made using organic vanillin. Adding a visit to the Ndali vanilla farm on your 10 days Uganda gorilla trekking safari, would be the best decision.

Apiculture Farms / Bee keeping 

There are many agricultural activities you can consider participating in, and among them in apiculture. Apiculture is also another term of beekeeping. It is the man-made process of maintain bee colonies to harvest bee products. 80% of Ugandans survive on subsistence organic farming and thus making organic beekeeping easy. There are number of sites that you can visit in Uganda where beekeeping takes place on a larger scale.

In Luwero district, onsite training in beekeeping can be provided and you can visit some of the farms in Arua district. Learn how to harvest honey, process and extract other bee products. Other products include;  bee venom, bee propolis, bee wax and so much more.  For more information about the beekeeping in Uganda and visiting a bee farm contact us.