Earning from coffee clones, seedlings

Lwanga attends to his coffee. Photo Michael J Ssali

Charles Lubega Lwanga of Manja B Village in Kisekka Sub-county, Lwengo District is not just a coffee farmer but he also produces coffee clones, which he sells to other farmers. He also prepares orange seedlings. “My late father used to be a coffee farmer and a coffee trader,” he says. “So, I was able to learn a great deal about all stages of coffee production. I am different from him because I also prepare coffee plantlets for sale to generate more income,” he explains.

Leading farmer
“The reason I also make orange seedlings is that many coffee farmers want to diversify their sources of money by intercropping coffee with oranges.”

Lwanga spent some months after school at the then Kamenyamiggo District Agricultural Training and Information Centre, where he was introduced to farming technologies that have enabled him to become a leading farmer in his community.

“We were taught that every sucker that grows on a coffee tree is a clone, which can be propagated and turned into individual coffee trees quite identical to the parent stock. We were also taught to make clonal coffee plantlets,” he elaborates.

Reputation
In his six-acre coffee plantation, Lwanga has all the seven recommended high-yielding Robusta coffee varieties from which he gets suckers to prepare clonal coffee cuttings.

“Too many suckers are not good for a coffee tree,” he said. “They are like weeds and they can decrease production. However, I don’t just remove them and destroy them. Instead I make coffee clones for sale to intending coffee farmers.” He has built himself a reputation as a coffee seed producer. When this writer visited last month he had more than 10,000 cloned plantlets in the nursery. They were to be sold to farmers in the next rainy season at Shs1,000 each.

Take precaution

Lwanga works on coffee clones in his nursery. PHOTO BY Michael J Ssali


Lwanga, now about 40 years old, gives free guidance to the farmers that buy plantlets from him. In some cases, he visits them to see how they have prepared their gardens for coffee planting.

“I take pride in the coffee plantlets that I sell to my customers. It is the reason I regularly visit the farmers to see how they are doing. If some of the plantlets I sold to them fail to sprout despite the farmers taking all the precautions I find myself compelled to compensate them with a few extra plantlets.”

Fairly good
His coffee farm is a learning centre for other farmers in the neighbourhood.
“The most important rule in coffee growing is zero tolerance to weeds. I always prefer to weed my plantation with a hoe.” He uses both manure and inorganic fertilisers.

In the previous season (May-July), he had harvested more than 60 gunny bags of dry Kiboko coffee. He is looking forward to even a better harvest next season (November-December).
The prices were fairly good last season at nearly Shs200,000 per bag.

Lwanga teaches fellow farmers how to apply manure and how to prune the coffee trees.

High yielding
Sometimes, he also offers consultation services and is invited to spend some days on other people’s farms providing advice about how to improve coffee production and how to intercrop coffee with other crops such as fruit trees, maize and beans.

“What most people find hard to appreciate is the importance of purchasing high-yielding seed. I remember purchasing just one kilogramme of bean seeds from Namulonge research institute and harvesting more than 100 kilogrammes. Most farmers get poor harvests because they don’t want to spend money on good seed.”
“It is the harvesting season that I find most challenging. I worry about thieves that can visit the plantation to harvest where they did not sow.”

Happy
It is necessary during that time to take extra security precautions, do more frequent supervision walks in the coffee plantation day and night, and to solicit the help of hired security guards. He must employ more people than the usual three to do the coffee picking. He is happy as a self-employed man. His children are all attending good boarding schools and he has big plans for their future education. His house is fitted with solar electricity and he recently purchased a brand new motorcycle.