LCU, UCDA collaborate to introduce coffee growing in Lango

 LIRA– Lango Cooperative Union [ LCU ] and the Uganda Coffee Development Authority [UCDA] are collaborating to ensure farmers in Lango Sub-region embrace coffee growing.

According to Maxwell Patrick Akora, the chairman board of directors of LCU and also the Maruzi County Member of Parliament, UCDA is in support of having Northern Uganda grow coffee which is one of the top foreign exchange earners of the country.

Akora said the national coffee agency has already provided forms to register interested farmers so that they can get seedlings.

“We held a meeting in March with UCDA because they want to introduce coffee in Northern Uganda and we have given out forms to the district heads to register farmers so that they will be able to get the seedlings from UCDA,” Akora said.

“As Lango Cooperative Union, we will not only trade in cotton. Coffee is a perianal crop that we shall also focus on because this will help sustain the livelihood of our farmers and people,” added Akora.

Dorcus Alum, the Lira district principal agricultural officer said the climate and soils in Lango Sub-region favour coffee growing, especially the Robusta type.

“Our climate supports Robusta coffee growing. Coffee growing is a lifetime investment which can be handed over to others in the future,” Alum said.

Opinion leaders, as well as farmers in the area, have welcomed the plan to introduce the growing of coffee in the area, though some called for the sensitisation of the locals first.

John Christopher Okwang, the chairperson of Alito Joint Multipurpose Cooperative Society Limited in Kole district urged LCU said coffee was first introduced in Lango Sub-region a long time ago but created no impact.

“Only a few farmers with sheds in their farmlands can do growing of coffee in Lango, so Lango Cooperative Union should first engage farmers and sensitise them on managing it,” Okwang said.

Meanwhile, Denis Hobly Oyite, a resident of Telela trading center in Ngai Sub-county, Oyam district coffee can be grown through targeted groups of farmers.

Oyite, who grows maize and soybeans on a large scale, argued that coffee growing in Lango Sub-region will only be suitable for the farmers who have large pieces of land.

“A farmer who has been carrying out subsistence farming may find it difficult to grow coffee but those with large pieces of land can do depending on their interest,” Oyite said.

Tonny Ogwal, the LCU Vice Chairperson said there is a need to change the locals’ mindsets so that they can embrace coffee growing, having spent many decades growing cotton as a cash crop.

Uganda’s coffee exports for 12 months [May 2022-April 2023] totaled 5.73 million bags worth US$ 838.54mln. The aims to produce 20mln bags of coffee by 2025-2030, according to Coffee Roadmap launched in 2017.

https://thecooperator.news/distribution-of-coffee-seedlings-starts-in-northern-uganda/

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