Ankole leaders, farmers to petition gov’t over coffee seedlings

RWAMPARA -Leaders and farmers in Ankole Sub-region districts Rwampara, Bushenyi, Mbarara, and Ntungamo districts plan to petition government after they received far fewer than the expected coffee seedlings from Uganda Coffee Development Authority [UCDA].

According to Benon Musiime, senior agricultural officer, Rwampara District only received 53,100 coffee seedlings out of 130,000 applied for the October-November planting season.

“We have a good number of farmers who had applied for the coffee seedlings but to our dismay, the district only received 53,100 seedlings,” Musiime said.

He blamed government for not working with contractors running nursery beds to produce enough coffee seedlings. “People didn’t know that the government at one time would buy their coffee seedlings,” he said, adding that only 65 farmers out of 200, benefited. Each farmer had been expected to receive up to 550 seedlings for an acre.

He appealed to government to engage nursery bed operators to produce more seedlings for the coffee farmers that missed out on the latest distribution.

Herbert Mutungi, a farmer in Ihunga village Kinoni town council said he had expected to receive 300 coffee seedlings much as he did not get any.

“We were mobilised to prepare our gardens and dig holes. I appeal to the government to consider us because right now I don’t know what to do with the 300 holes already dug,” he said.

Fred Mukundane, one of the coffee farmers in Rugando Sub-county who received 500 seedlings, said he requested 1,000 to plant on his four acres of land.

Richard Owomugasho, district chairman Rwampara urged government to provide more coffee seedlings to the farmers, arguing that even those who received got less than what they applied for.

“Why would someone request 10,000 tree seedlings and you only provide him with 200? He demands for 3,000 and you give him 500?”

Together with other local leaders especially in the agriculture sector, Owomugasho said they would petition the central government over the matter. “We have agreed that we should write a letter to the central government complaining why they are giving us insufficient coffee seedlings,” Owomugasho said.

Apollo Kakonge, a farmer in Bushenyi district also showed discomfort when he applied for 3,000 coffee seedlings but has not received anything to plant.

Ainamani Abaasa, chairman of Banyankole Kweterana Co-operative Union [BKCU] also said coffee farmers are unhappy, as their gardens remain unplanted.

“I have received complaints from our members in Mitoma, Rwampara, Bushenyi and over 60 farmers have so far complained that government has not provided them with coffee seedlings yet the same government is encouraging farmers to grow coffee,” he said.

He added: “As Banyankole Kweterana, we have put up our own nursery bed so that next planting season our farmers should not suffer.”

Tom Karuhanga, the mayor of Bukiro town council and a coffee exporter said out of about 5,000 coffee seedlings needed, government provided 1,860 for six farmers.

“As a national issue, coffee farmers were requested to prepare the gardens as quickly as possible but it has not distributed enough seedlings,” he added.

Didas Tabaro, Mbarara district chairperson blamed government for not involving local leaders in the planning processes.

“There should always be a bottom-up approach where the suppliers should have consulted the local governments and identified the number of applications. Our farmers are now facing the consequences of bad planning,” he said.

Deus Mutabatina, UCDA’s regional coordinator in Mbarara and Ntungamo acknowledged that government released few coffee seedlings compared to the number of farmers in the two districts.

“This time around government was not interested in procuring free seedlings for the farmers but it is because of the pressure from parliamentarians that we decided otherwise, yet nursery operators were not informed to produce more seedlings,” he said.

He said coffee demand is high and its prices have increased, a reason why all farmers are now struggling to grow more of the crop, with Brazil and Vietnam, the world’s top producers facing climatic challenges.

James Baluku, southwestern regional UCDA coordinator also confirmed that the government delayed pronouncing itself on the provision of coffee seedlings to the farmers.

However, he said farmers this time around received improved coffee seedlings that are resistant to coffee wilt disease.

https://thecooperator.news/global-coffee-market-demanding-higher-quality-over-higher-volumes/

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