Prime
Guarding against coffee thefts

Coffee can be stolen from the dying yard when farmers go off to work in the garden. PHOTO/ MICHAEL J SSALI
What you need to know:
- Coffee has become so valuable that nearly everyone wants to grow the crop by hook or crook. There are therefore increased cases of theft of planting materials from coffee nurseries.
Coffee production in Uganda is steadily increasing following the recent sharp rise of the crop’s prices on the international market.
It has attracted a lot of attention and its production is widely considered as one of the plausible economic activities to mitigate poverty. However it has also been associated with a lot of insecurity and crime, especially in the rural areas where it is grown.
Some farmers have been killed by the thieves as they walked about in their gardens safeguarding and monitoring the crop. Often thieves have been caught harvesting coffee and killed by angry mobs.
Harvested coffee is almost as good as cash and it is highly risky to store it at the farm for long. There have been reports of robbers going for it in trucks right there and taking it away. Some thieves steal the crop from the drying yard when the farm owners are not watching. Sometimes it happens at night when the farmers are asleep. There are cases of some members of farming households stealing the crop and selling it without the knowledge of the head of the family.
Yet we have instances of thieves that uproot young coffee trees (recently planted seedlings) from fellow farmers’ gardens to sell them or to go and plant them in their own gardens.
There are also numerous reports of thieves stealing potted clones from coffee nurseries. Some thieves steal shoots or clones from coffee farms to prepare cloned seedlings for sale to intending coffee farmers.
Most peasant farming households don’t have enough firewood for cooking and they often go to large coffee farms and steal the wooden supports used to prevent over laden coffee branches from breaking.
Coffee-on-farm theft is linked to degradation of the crop’s quality. The people who steal the crop normally don’t observe quality regulations laid down by the government.
They usually act in a hurry and under cover of darkness. They therefore don’t have the time to pick only ripe cherries as dictated in the National Coffee Act 2021.
Former Minister of Finance, Gerald Ssendaula, and current chairman of NUCAFE (National Union of Coffee Agribusiness and Farm Enterprises) is of the view that it has taken far too long for the National Coffee Act 2021 to be implemented.
During a recent phone interview with the Seeds of Gold, Ssendaula said, “There is a lot of weakness among our local government leaders at the village levels.
Most local councils are composed of low level leaders who are not keen enough about the enforcement of the laws governing the crop. And it is the local communities to blame because they vote for people that are not development minded.
A thief gets arrested and set free because he is somebody’s son on the village local council. They vote for people who cannot realize the connection between poor quality coffee and low coffee prices. They vote their friends and not able and serious leaders to become village council leaders.”
If truth is to be told, coffee theft could be greatly reduced if the National Coffee Act 2021 were fully applied. It forbids and punishes people who pick unripe coffee cherries. It forbids unregistered coffee traders who roam the villages purporting to be traders and buying all types of coffee including that prematurely harvested or mixed with foreign objects.
Such traders also buy stolen coffee from the thieves.
The unscrupulous traders eventually sell it to registered coffee traders and it finally gets mixed with coffee going out to the international market. It has to be noted that we have corruption almost everywhere in the coffee value chain. The thieves can very easily find buyers of their loot because the coffee trade is not well regulated. It is extremely rare to hear about a case of a coffee garden thief convicted in a court of law. There is corruption in coffee farming and in its trade.
To guard against coffee farm thefts some people have arranged night village patrols. Sowedi Sserwadda, chairman of Kibinge Coffee Farmers Cooperative Society in Bukomansimbi District, says this has worked for the society’s members. “We also try to trace the origin of coffee because we have a register of all our members and if somebody who has no garden and has some coffee to sell we demand to know how he or she got it,” he says.
Ssendaula says theft of coffee by household members is normally caused by some family heads neglecting to provide necessary items in the home. “Husbands should ensure that their wives and children are well taken care of,” he says. Many husbands tend to sell coffee and spend the money on alcohol and other futile enjoyments outside their homes. The other family members live in poverty and fail to get necessities such as soap, medicine, clothes, school books and other items. They then resort to secretly harvesting the coffee and selling it to buy the items without the knowledge of the head of the family.
Lwengo District Principal Agriculture Officer, Peter Bamwesigye, has said domestic coffee theft also often leads to domestic violence.
“Community Development Officers must sensitize our farmers about the importance of gender equity in farming. If all family members have an idea how the money earned from coffee is spent there is much less chance for thefts and conflicts.
The husband and wife should work in harmony and there should be transparency in all coffee transactions.” He said his main preoccupation these days is to traverse the entire district discussing coffee security measures with farmers’ groups, and helping those who want to establish nurseries to make mother gardens.
Many young people have learnt to make coffee clones for planting but they don’t have mother gardens from which to obtain shoots (clones). They therefore invade coffee farms to pluck the shoots often without the permission of the garden owners. Preparation of coffee clones for planting is quite lucrative since there are very many people eager to begin growing coffee.
Some people have resorted to hiring security guards to protect their coffee gardens especially during the harvest season. However Ssendaula warns that security guards can be corrupted and aid the thieves to steal the coffee. Keeping domestic barking dogs and installing security cameras can be quite helpful.
Other cases of coffee farm thefts include stealing of wooden supports meant to protect heavily laden coffee branches from breaking. Many people have no firewood to cook their food and they normally steal the wooden supports to act as firewood. Police sniff dogs have often been used to track thieves and farmers should ensure they have quick communication means to the nearest police station.