Gulu coffee farmers’ conference in the offing
GULU, February 6, 2025 – Ribbo Coffee, a social enterprise based in Gulu City, is organising a coffee conference aimed at addressing several challenges faced by coffee farmers in the Acholi Subregion, including soil health and nutrition, drought management, wildfires, and termites.
Innocent Piloya, the company’s Chief Executive Officer, explained that many coffee farmers in the region struggle to produce high-quality coffee due to poor soil nutrition.
“This conference will support farmers already growing coffee by teaching them how to manage soil nutrition. It’s very common to visit farms where other aspects of the farm appear to be fine, but the crops are undernourished due to a failure to manage soil nutrition,” said Piloya.
The conference, scheduled for March 7, 2025 at Elephante Commons in Gulu City, is expected to attract around 5,000 participants, including farmers, policymakers, politicians, and businesspeople, among others.
Piloya further explained that some farmers may have large areas of coffee cultivation but only yield significant profits from a few trees due to poor soil nutrition.
“We also aim to engage with farmers who want to start growing coffee the right way, which includes providing quality coffee seedlings,” Piloya added. Ribbo Coffee, which currently works with 550 coffee farmers in the Acholi and Lango Subregions, intends to recruit 650 new farmers for contract coffee farming.
“We are raising 50,000 coffee seedlings, which we intend to sell to farmers at a discounted price of Shs 1,500 each in April to eliminate the barrier to starting coffee farming,” Piloya said, adding that the seedlings would not be given away for free. “We want to teach farmers to value the enterprise by making an investment. Past government projects distributing free seedlings have not worked because farmers did not value what they had not invested in. When you spend money on something, people tend to value it more,” he explained.
Additionally, Piloya said the conference would focus on teaching farmers about water conservation methods on the farm, including irrigation.
“You can fight pests and diseases, but without water, a farmer may not achieve good yields. Farmers need to learn to invest in their farms and incorporate agroforestry to conserve moisture,” he said.
Christopher Opiyo Ateke, the L.C V Chairperson of Gulu District, speaking at the International Coffee Day event in Gulu, called for increased training of coffee farmers.
“Farmers do not know how to properly manage coffee. We need farmers to embrace climate-smart farming, but extension workers are few and far between,” Opiyo said, adding that farmers are currently suffering from drought conditions between December and March.
He emphasized the need to train farmers in producing organic pesticides and fertilisers and noted that Ribbo Coffee is looking to recruit at least 650 new coffee farmers. The organisation also plans to raise 5,000 coffee seedlings to sell to the new farmers.
Northern Uganda mainly grows clonal coffee, which takes about two years to produce its first harvest, and elite coffee, which takes around four years to bear its first fruit.
https://thecooperator.news/how-coffee-and-cocoa-growing-is-taking-shape-in-adjumani-district/
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