Gulu City urges OWC to deliver coffee seedlings on time
GULU CITY, May 2, 2025 – Gulu City Mayor, Alfred Okwonga, has called on the Operation Wealth Creation Secretariat [OWC] to ensure the timely delivery of coffee seedlings to farmers to prevent losses due to late planting.
Okwonga noted that delays in seedling distribution have consistently resulted in the death of many seedlings, as they are planted outside the ideal period.
“Ensure that farmers receive seedlings between May and June because beyond that, the survival rate of coffee seedlings is significantly reduced,” said Okwonga.
He was speaking on Tuesday at the opening of a two-day ‘Training of Trainers’ workshop on coffee production, organised by the OWC Secretariat at Archbishop Janani Luwum Theological College in Gulu City.
Similar training sessions were simultaneously launched in Pader and Lamwo districts.
Okwonga also urged OWC to address the issue of market access for farmers engaging in large-scale coffee production.
“How are farmers going to access the market? We shouldn’t leave them at the mercy of middlemen who exploit them, leaving them with little to no profit,” he added.
Sylvia Damalie Owori, Director of Operations at the OWC Secretariat, said the organisation is tackling the issue of low coffee seedling survival rates in the Acholi Sub-region by prioritising farmer training before distribution.
“Over the years, 2,800 hectares of coffee have been planted in the Acholi Sub-region using seedlings distributed under OWC. However, these efforts were often uncoordinated, carried out through trial and error,” Owori said.
She noted that, moving forward, 400 trained personnel will provide technical guidance to farmers across the sub-region. Those trained include extension workers, district production officers, agricultural officers, OWC coordinators, and selected coffee farmers.
“This time, we won’t leave farmers on their own. We’ll profile each coffee farmer to understand their acreage and specific support needs. As part of the coffee roadmap, we’ll also establish producer organisations and cooperatives to tackle the issue of market access,” she said.
Owori added that OWC plans to establish coffee farm field schools to provide continuous hands-on training to farmers.
She warned farmers against rushing into planting without proper training: “Coffee is not like maize. We’ve seen cases where farmers dig very shallow holes, which leads to poor seedling survival. But with proper training, farmers can harvest up to 30 bags of coffee per acre instead of just 10.”
OWC has allocated Shs 5.5 billion to supply 12 million coffee seedlings, despite receiving requests for 20 million seedlings from the Acholi Sub-region alone.
OWC was launched by President Yoweri Museveni in July 2013 as an intervention to efficiently facilitate national socio-economic transformation, with a focus on raising household incomes and wealth creation by transforming subsistence farmers into commercial farmers to end poverty. This was after successful implementation with tangle outcomes of the pilot program launched to support Civilian-Veterans in the “Luwero-Rwenzori Triangle”
https://thecooperator.news/owc-to-donate-2-5mln-coffee-seedlings-to-creative-artists/
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