Kayunga farmers prepare for bumper coffee harvest

It has been four years since coffee farmers in Kayunga District last had a bumper harvest for the crop they consider their major cash crop. With at least 80 per cent of the residents in the district engaged in coffee growing, poor yields for the crop in such a long time meant increased poverty levels among many residents, with many contemplating abandoning the crop. Kayunga District is among the three leading districts producing robusta coffee. But despite the invasion of the coffee crop by the coffee wilt disease and coffee stem borer, this season is promising. Currently, all coffee gardens which have been green are turning red with most of the coffee plants bending due to the immense weight from the coffee they are carrying.

The coffee harvesting season is expected to begin at the end of August and many coffee buyers from different parts of the country have begun booking buildings from which they will transact their business.“Mr Wilberforce Kityo a resident of Nanjwenge village in Kitimbwa sub-county who owns 12 acres of coffee says.“I am sure this season is going to be my best coffee harvest since 2006. I have already begun preparing for it. I have bought tampaulin ( tundubali) which I will use in picking my coffee and also constructed a cemented yard where I will dry my coffee. Kityo says he has made all these preparations to ensure that his coffee is of good quality so that it fetches him good money.

He explains that in 2006 when they last had a bumper harvest, he harvested about 140 bags of coffee and earned about Shs8m but he is optimistic that this season, he will harvest at least 160 bags of coffee.
“The bumper harvest is here but the only thing that will make us lose a lot of money is when some farmers who want to make quick money opt to pick green coffee which lowers the quality of our coffee hence low prices for the crop,” Kityo says. He attributes this season’s bumper harvest on reliable rains which were received in the district late last year and farmer’s vigorous involvement in fighting the wilt and coffee pest plus replanting of destroyed coffee crops. Mr Yunus Lumiisa, the chairperson Kangulumira sub-county Coffee Farmers Association says the main challenge they are facing are unscrupulous coffee buyers who cheat farmers by offering them low prices for the crop.

He says they intend to contact prominent and honest coffee buyers to whom they will sell their coffee as a group.“We shall not accept cheating middle men to defraud farmers. We want to ensure that all farmers benefit from this bumper harvest,” Lumiisa says. Lumiisa, who is also the Kangulumira Sub-county LC3 chairman says lack of agricultural inputs like hoes, insecticides and planting materials is still hampering efforts to increase coffee production.“Coffee is one of the main cash crop earners for this country but government is doing little to assist coffee farmers increase their production,” Lumiisa complains. With the start of the season only a month away, coffee factory owners are also refurbishing their machines.

Mr Mark Sserunkuuma, the proprietor of Makukuma Domestic Coffee factory in Kayunga town says his factory has since 2006 been operating under capacity due to low coffee production in the district.
Sserunkuuma who also buys processed coffee says this season they will buy processed coffee (Kase) between Shs2,600 and Shs2,700 a kilogramme and dry coffee (kiboko) at Shs1,000 a kilo. He however says the prices might change depending on the quality of coffee.
“If the quality of coffee is low, definitely the price will go down and vice versa,” he says. The Kayunga District Production Officer Dr David Mugabi says to ensure that farmers benefit from their coffee, the district will soon enact a coffee quality assurance and control ordinance that will see farmers who pick green coffee or those who inappropriately dry it penalised.“When the ordinance is passed, a farmer found harvesting green coffee will be heavily punished. We have also embarked on a campaign to sensitise coffee framers on how to ensure that their coffee is of high quality coffee, and the dangers of picking green coffee,” Dr Mugabi says.