Farmers, district leaders moot ways to boost coffee production, marketing

IBANDA | COFFEE | CHALLENGES

Unscrupulous go-betweens are some of the challenges that affect the coffee sector in the Ibanda district.

Farmers say the go-betweens and traders connive to cheat them, claiming the coffee was of inferior quality and hence pay them low prices, taking advantage of unorganized groups. 

However, such challenges could soon be history after coffee farmers in Ibanda formed a co-operative society that will take control of the sector, from the provision of seedlings to the production and marketing of the beans. 

The Ibanda Coffee Growers’ Co-operative Union is also expected to help farmers to find better ways to increase production and ensure quality along the value chain, especially post-harvest handling. 

While supporting the idea, David Bigira, a model farmer in Nyabuhikye, Ibanda municipality, said coffee farmers who work as individuals cannot gain from the crop as the go-betweens take advantage of the loopholes to exploit them, paying less for the beans. 

So, we have a lot to gain from coming together to work under a co-operative compared to when everyone is on their own, he added during a coffee farmers’ meeting at the district head offices on September 28. 

LC5 chairperson Herbert Happy Mayanja said go-betweens were taking advantage of desperate farmers to pay them peanuts, a challenge the co-operative hopes to address using its strong bargaining power. 

He added that the Government policy was to support farmers in groups, noting that previous efforts to lobby for coffee farmers in the district were futile because they were not organized in co-operatives. 

Mayanja During The Meeting.

The chairperson assured the farmers of the district’s support, explaining that coffee was selected as the lead enterprise in the fight against poverty in Ibanda. 

He added that the target was for the district co-operative to export its coffee soon to ensure farmers gain maximally from their investment in the crop. 
  
Speaking during the meeting, Uganda Coffee Development Authority (UCDA) co-ordinator for Ibanda and Kitagwenda districts Erison Mwesigye said farmers in Sheema and Busisu were reaping big from coffee because they market jointly under cooperatives.

He said whereas traders were buying a kilogram of Robusta coffee at sh7,000 in Ibanda, farmers in Sheema were pocketing 9,000 shillings per kilogram.  
  
Boosting productivity 

The district targets to increase coffee production and productivity, from almost one-and-a-half kilograms of clean coffee per tree annually to five kilos within five years. 

Silver Nkwasibwe, the district senior agriculture officer, explained the average production per coffee tree stands at 1.4 kilograms, saying that it was extremely low.

He said they were strengthening extension and advisory services, farmers' training, and promoting modern farming methods such as crop irrigation and the use of fertilizers to spur output.

They are also encouraging farmers to adopt other climate-smart approaches such as agroforestry, digging of trenches to trap water run-offs, and mulching to support plantations during the dry spells.  
  
During the 2020/2021 coffee year, 600 tonnes of coffee were exported from the Ibanda district by different individual traders, according to UCDA. At 250,000 tonnes of coffee exports, Uganda is the second leading producer of coffee in Africa after Ethiopia and ranks 10th globally.  
  
Challenges 

David Kiiza, of Kashangura, said farmers cannot afford fertilizers, adding that many have old coffee trees that need rehabilitation, including applying fertilizers, and hence output from such plantations stays low. He added that fake agro inputs were also hurting the sector.  

Farmers also pointed out the lack of extension services and low prices as barriers to increased production. According to Nkwasibwe, the district has only 17 extensions staff, two of whom are stationed at the head office. The leadership, however, promised to work with stakeholders to address most of the bottlenecks farmers face. 
  
Co-op leaders elected 

Relatedly, interim district and sub-county executive committees were formed to spearhead the project as well as mobilize and register farmers.

The district committee of 11 members is chaired by Joseph Bankunda, from the Rukiri sub-county in Ibanda South County. The sub-county committees are made up of five members each.