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Coffee Farmers Desperate in Uganda
People engaged in agriculture seldom reveal secrets of the trade. They mostly talk about the problems on the market. Today the coffee industry is plagued by many problems, which surface during the period of harvesting.
Unfortunately, the managers in the coffee industry do not do much about solving the problems and because of this, the quality of coffee has continued to fall. If the managers produce rules and regulations, the industry will be the envy of many people in the agricultural sector.
The Ministry of Agriculture for Policy and Development of Uganda used to manage the coffee industry, however, with the liberalised economy today, things have changed.
Making policies remains a government responsibility, development is left to the Coffee Development Authority policy and marketing to individuals or interested groups.
The peasant growers are left in the cold, yet they determine the coffee quality.
During the harvesting period, some people steal the coffee and competition for fresh coffee beans intensifies, sometimes leading to harvesting of raw coffee.
Buyers even offer to pick the beans or subject farmers to using the curing method in order to shorten the drying time.
Coffee buyers sometimes ferment the fresh beans because fermented coffee takes a shorter time to dry. A coffee expert says this gives the coffee a different taste.
In the late 1990s, peasant farmers accessed agro-practice information via the Uganda National Farmers Association (UNFA).
Today, the National Agricultural Advisory Services, a replica of UNFA, does not exist at the grassroots, therefore, farmers have no access to information regarding a new coffee variety, the Cultimol Arabica Coffee, which grows well in areas where the coffee wilt disease exists.
The coffee industry is, therefore, on the verge of collapsing and the loopholes in the coffee organisations are not addressed.
What remains uncertain is whether the terms of reference and the law give the Uganda Coffee Development Authority leeway to meet the expectations of coffee growers?
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