Well done: Nasali Suzan receives a certificate of achievement and a cash bonus for completing one year of valuable service. She is now also entitled to paid holiday, in addition to existing paid sick leave. Gyebaleko nnyabo! #workers #Uganda

Plagued for several years by persistent low voltage and daily power cuts, our village came together to raise money and pester government and the power company to install a transformer. It's taken nearly a year but today's the day! Hoorah! #Uganda #communi

By this time last year we had pollinated 850 vanilla flowers. This year we have so far pollinated only 11. Could this be a result of the unusual dry season which has featured far more cloud and rain showers than sun? 🤔 #vanilla #Uganda

A sight to gladden a cocoa farmer's heart in the dry season: big pods and lots of them 😊 Doubly pleasing at a time when the price is the highest it's been since we started 👍 #organic #Cocoa #Uganda

Unexpected: our biggest ever cocoa harvest, at just over 1 tonne of pods, which should produce 75kg of fermented and dried beans. In comparison, the harvest at the same time last year was 143kg of pods. #organic #Cocoa #Uganda

Another harvest, another record: 1,137kg of cocoa pods, nearly four times the amount we harvested this time last year. And a day after the price went up again 😊 #organic #cocoa #Uganda

West African cocoa plants run out of beans as global chocolate crisis deepens reuters.com/markets/commod… ... Don't they know that cocoa is produced in other parts of the world?

After two consecutive record cocoa harvests, this round fell short, but only by 55kg. And at 989kg, it's still 25% higher than last year's peak 😊 #organic #Cocoa #Uganda

The gift that keeps on giving: another record harvest; 1,298kg of organic cocoa pods, which should produce around 97kg of fermented and dried beans. 😊 #organic #Cocoa #Uganda

We sold our latest batch of cured organic vanilla, with a vanillin content of over 3%, which means the quality is very good. The cloud to this silver lining is that the price is still in the doldrums, at around 25USD per kg 😕 #organic #vanilla #Uganda

Close: this harvest of organic cocoa pods wasn't a new record, but not far off. And it was three times the amount of this time last year. Usually, the yield would tail off now until later in the year, but shows no sign of doing so. Not that we're complaining! #Cocoa #Uganda

A rare sight: a tiny tree frog, probably Leptopelis kivuensis, in the vanilla. It's only the second time one has been seen on the farm and as such is unusual, as it is usually found in swamp forests in western Uganda. #Frog #Uganda

At 1,107kg, this round maintains the ongoing high cocoa yield, and though the price has dipped a little, it's still 300% higher than a year ago. Good times 😊 #organic #Cocoa #Uganda

The cocoa price (for fermented and dried beans) paid to farmers here has just dropped by 8%, to approx $6 USD/kg. Just days before we were about to sell our latest batch 😕 Still, it remains nearly 300% higher than a year ago, so we can't grumble.#Cocoa #Uganda

We are still waiting for the usual seasonal dip in the cocoa yield to begin: at 1,163kg of pods, this is our second highest harvest ever, over 300% up on this time last year 👍 #organic #Cocoa #Uganda

Another harvest, another tonne: 1,049kg of organic cocoa pods, and the price recently increased by 13%. A good time to be a cocoa farmer in Uganda 😊 #organic #Cocoa #Uganda

As anticipated, this season's vanilla flowering is 50% down on this time last year, presumably due to the unusual cloudy weather we had in January, meaning the vanilla didn't get the period of dormancy it needs to encourage flowering. 😕 #organic #vanilla #Uganda

Up and down: recently, the price of fermented and dried cocoa beans paid to farmers here in Uganda had gone up 15% (to 30,000 UGX). Today it's dropped 16% to 25,000 UGX. Thankfully we sold our latest batch just before the fall 😊 #organic #Cocoa #Uganda

As the cocoa leaves yellow and fall in the dry season, the long-anticipated drop in yield is upon us. The last harvest was 30% down, and at 472kg, this one is over 50% lower. Still, it's more than double this time last year. #organic #Cocoa #Uganda