Coffee growing boosted in Luweero triangle

By Frederick Kiwanuka               

Coffee growing in the former Luweero triangle is to benefit from a multi-million program set to train over 100,000 farmers, supply them with free in-puts and help them secure markets.

The three-year program which starts this year, is intended to reduce poverty in the former triangle by boosting quality and quantity of the cash crop produced in the districts of: Luweero, Nakaseke and Nakasongola.
The project is being implemented by ISP-Uganda, a Kampala NGO in conjunction with Tweyanze Development Agency (TDA), a Luweero based affiliate .

Passing out the first batch of 102 coffee farmers who completed   a two-week training at Tweyanze in Luweero on Wednesday , the TDA  director, Godfrey Sengendo said a total of  100,000 farmers would be trained in growing ,harvesting and post-harvest management over a period of three years.

The participants were trained in the various processes of coffee production, book keeping and agro-business by agricultural experts from Makerere University College of agriculture.

Coffee production   in the three districts has over the years greatly declined both in quality and quantity due to poor maintenance, yet coffee is the mainstay of household incomes in the area, especially in Luweero and Nakaseke.

Sengendo said the intervention will enable beneficiary families to have at least one acre of well-maintained coffee garden.

He said the program will initially distribute 100,000 of colonal coffee seedlings, but the number will keep increasing in tandem with the absorption capacity of the farmers.

The Luweero district agricultural officer ,Nnalongo Namubiru  said the intervention  would help to supplement  other  programs  being implemented  by  the  government to revamp coffee growing in the area.

Namubiru said that poor maintenance of gardens, poor harvesting and poor post-harvest management, had caused a sharp decline in crop quality and yields which in turn led to a decline in proceeds.

She said that because of the poor quality crop, the farmers find themselves in a weak bargaining position while selling their crop.

Luweero LC5 chairman, Abdul Nadduli said there was widespread poverty in the District, especially in the countryside due to lack of a reliable cash crop that people can sell to fend for their families and pay school fees.

He said coffee used to be the major cash crop in the region but the residents had abandoned their gardens because of poor prices the crop used to fetch in the last few years.

Robina Sembatya, a farmer from Kikaabya village in Luweero who participated in the course said she had ¾ of an acre which she intended to expand to at least one acre using the knowledge that she had acquired.

Samuel Kabenge another participant said he had four acres of coffee, but he was earning peanuts due to the poor selection of seedlings.

Kabenge said he would gradually replace the old trees which have poor yields with colonal coffee.

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