Quality assurance: Coffee farmers promised 33 percent bonus

NEBBI– Coffee farmers in Zombo and Nebbi districts would get a 33 percent bonus on each kilo of premium coffee produced in the seasons ahead to encourage them to maintain quality standards in the production of the cash crop.

The promised bonus would be on top of the normal price the farmers have been receiving, says Agency for Community Empowerment [AFCE], a non-governmental organisation that is helping smallholder coffee farmers produce specialty coffee.

Aggrey Chombe, the AFCE executive director said since 2011 they have been engaging farmers in the coffee value chains, especially to help farmers produce specialty coffee that comes with adherence to quality assurance standards demanded by international buyers.

Chombe said that to strengthen the capacity of coffee value chain, they have established 10 coffee micro stations to train farmers in quality standards demanded on the international market.

“Last year, we exported two containers of high quality coffee which made us reward our coffee farmers for adhering to quality assurance standards,” he said.

He said quality control begins right from picking coffee cherries on the farm to transporting, adding that farmers need to be trained in all processes involved in the production of high quality coffee.

Commenting on quality assurance, the deputy resident commissioner Zombo district Grace Atimango urged farmers to maintain quality of green coffee beans by keeping stores clean as well as drying coffee on clean materials.

She said farmers should use the Parish Development Model funds [PDM] to strengthen their capacity in coffee production.

One of the coffee farmers in Erussi Sub-county, Winifred Acham-Fua said producing coffee has given her a livelihood as she has been able to look after her family using the money earned from selling the cash crop.

However, she said despite farmers being trained in specialty coffee production, traditional coffee varieties which have overstayed for more than 20 years, continue to give farmers low yields.

She also argued more farmers need training in post-harvest handling. “I recommend coffee farmers to be trained on post-harvest handling and climate-smart coffee production,” Acham-Fua said.

In international markets, high-quality coffee that is ripe, undamaged, and washed when processed can be sold for substantially higher prices than lower-quality coffee.

In Uganda, practices, and technologies to improve the quality of coffee cherries, the fruit that yields coffee beans, are well established, but experts say many farmers appear to lack the incentives to invest in adopting more intensive practices to meet international quality standards. “This may be because coffee has a long supply chain of intermediary traders and processors, where only a small portion of value offered on the world market trickles up to the farmers,” experts say.

Premium quality is defined as sun-dried coffee that has a moisture content of 14 percent or lower, foreign matter below 2 percent, and total defects below 30 percent. There are a number of ways in which farmers can enhance the quality of their coffee cherries, including applying fertilizer appropriately, trimming trees at the recommended intervals, selectively harvesting only ripe cherries, and engaging in appropriate post-harvest drying, processing, and storage behaviours.

https://thecooperator.news/ucda-and-psfu-partner-to-boost-coffee-subsector/

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