Should Uganda replace all its coffee trees to improve yields?

Farm workers tend coffee trees. As Uganda seeks to significantly improve its coffee production, one of the major issues is how to deal with the old coffee trees in many parts of the country. FILE PHOTO

Government should take radical steps to uproot over 90 per cent of existing coffee plantations, to replace them with newer higher-yielding varieties, if the industry is to be revamped to better incomes and bigger revenues from the globally-prized crop.
According to Patrick Yiga, the chief executive officer, Farming Consultants and Management Company, only about 10 per cent of the existing coffee plantations yield better, averagely earning farmers more per acre annually. But this contributes little coffee compared to the large volumes needed for export.

Less productive
He observes: “Ninety per cent of Uganda’s coffee trees are 25-30 years old, yielding as low as five kilogrammes a tree every harvest season, instead of 10 kilogrammes and above per tree. A coffee replanting programme is needed and it must be implemented urgently.”
He says Ugandans have the potential to earn highly from coffee, but they cannot because existing shambas are less productive. As a result, farmers earn less than Shs 12-13m per acre annually. “Speaking from experience, every shamba that was planted before or around 1985-1986, should have been uprooted by now. Because 30 years is too long a period to grow the same coffee trees,” Yiga argues.
If need be, the government should apply coercion because urgent intervention is required to make coffee growing a profitable business.
The falling foreign exchange earnings is partly due to low yields as a result of poor agronomy. In addition, farmers lack knowledge and information due to absence of an effective extension system.
To back the argument, Yiga cites Brazil where periodic renewal of coffee plantations and extension are practiced as a policy.

Technical expertise
But Connie Acayo, an assistant commissioner, Ministry of Agriculture, Animal Industry and Fisheries (Maaif), expressed caution in undertaking such radical measures.
“We cannot implement such an idea. Even if it were right, we cannot recommend a massive undertaking unless there was a virulent disease outbreak,” she says.
Maaif relies on farmers’ advice on crops and farming enterprises. For coffee, it prioritises technical expertise from Uganda Coffee Development Authority (UCDA) and Naro’s Coffee Research Institute Kituza. However, UCDA has announced a new seasonal massive coffee-planting programme supported by Naads and Operation Wealth-Creation (OWC), which starts this April.

Major boost
Farmers who plan to establish coffee plantations, have to register their interest with village council chairmen—outlining size of land intended for new plantations and the estimated amount of planting materials such as seedlings needed.
This information, according to UCDA, will be forwarded to Naads/OWC via the Local Councils in each sub-county, across the country.
The exercise is intended to make a major boost to coffee-growing in many years.
“When I talked about the need to uproot old trees, a farmer in Masaka said they even have 60-year-old trees, from which they harvest only two to five kilogrammes per tree. We should urgently treat this as a serious matter.”
The old shambas be replanted with new trees but accompanied with strict regulations on inputs and good husbandry practices, in order to get better results from the leading export commodity.

With one acre of new coffee trees, farmers would earn Shs12-13m because every time trees are renewed with higher-yielding varieties, they get energised. In addition, the introduction of irrigation and deliberate application of fertilisers is recommended.

More per acre
Giving an average one-acre farm operation in Uganda which 450 trees planted at a spacing of 10x10 feet, Yiga refers to it as an unproductive arrangement. “With such operation, farmers harvest only about 4,500 kgs of coffee per annum. At a farm-gate price of Shs 2,000 per kilo, farmers earn only an average of Shs9m an acre every harvest-season.”
Contrast with Brazil—the world’s largest coffee-producer and exporter—their coffee policy recommends 1,200 coffee trees for an acre.
This enables more trees to be planted at per acre. This gives a higher yield of 7,200 kgs. If it was in Uganda, farmers would earn Shs 14m-Shs20m per harvest season.
However, Acayo, the communication specialist, says Maaif, Naro, UCDA and other private institutions like Nucafe have a number of initiatives for the sector. “We need to share farmers’ rich experiences and ideas, but we do not take everything they say. They should also appreciate technical contributions,” she says.