Uganda hopes to improve coffee production

A new policy that seeks to boost Uganda's coffee
industry has been launched, with government
earmarking at least Shs 24bn for planting some
100 million coffee seedlings every year until 2016.
Some of these figures are contained in the
National Coffee Policy, which was launched in
Mukono recently. Coffee remains one of the
country's most important commercial agricultural
commodities, contributing an annual average of
about 20 per cent of Uganda's total export
revenue over the last 10 years.
For almost a decade, funding for the promotion
of coffee growing, championed by the Uganda
Coffee Development Authority (UCDA), had
stagnated at Shs 1bn per year, a figure that coffee
promoters view as too little.
The ministry of Agriculture, Animal Industry and
Fisheries recently launched the Coffee Policy that
defines clear-cut interventions required for scaling
up performance and development of the coffee
sector.
"The formulation process of this policy was
highly consultative, involving all key stakeholders
in government, coffee industry and non-
governmental institutions and a cross section of
society. It will therefore be a solid foundation for
review of supportive legal and regulatory
frameworks that will create an enabling
environment for guiding the coffee sub-sector,"
Tress Bucyanayandi, the minister for Agriculture,
said during the launch.
Over the last 40 years, Uganda's coffee
production has stagnated at three million bags
per year with smallholder farmers dominating the
sector, according to official government data.
Different studies show that there is limited estate
production, with low input use, resulting into low
yields.
According to Kakuuto MP Mathias Kasamba,
chairperson of the Parliamentary committee on
Agriculture, Animal Industry and Fisheries, with
increased enthusiasm to reactivate coffee
plantations, government had expressed
commitment to increase funding for the coffee
sector.
Budgetary allocations were increased to Shs 24bn
this financial year to meet the government pledge
of providing at least 100 million coffee seedlings
under the national coffee strategic intervention.
"Among the actions we want to undertake is to
put down a strong institutional framework from
the village to the national level. This will help us to
know the number of coffee farmers and the
coffee plants so as to establish an enterprise-
based leadership structure," Kasamba said.
Government is set to adopt nine strategies,
including the promotion of proper farming
practices such as spacing, pruning and mulching
at the farm level, as well as promoting coffee
growing in new areas.
The government also intends to strengthen the
coffee research system. This could be achieved
through the establishment of a coffee research
institute within the National Agricultural Research
Organisation in line with the National Agricultural
Research Systems Act.
In the policy, government intends to support
mass multiplication and distribution of improved
coffee planting materials.
"The existing system has one UCDA extension
worker manning about eight districts. We are
now looking at having at least an extension
worker in every district,"