She encouraged residents to embrace coffee growing, saying the crop had become increasingly lucrative due to rising demand on the market.
By Yazid Yolisigira | Iganga
The Government has distributed 50,000 coffee seedlings to farmers in the Busoga sub-region as part of efforts to promote coffee growing, increase household incomes and fight poverty.
The seedlings, distributed through the Ministry of Agriculture, Animal Industry and Fisheries, were handed over to farmers under the Nile Source Cooperative Union, an organisation formed four years ago to promote coffee growing across Busoga.
Speaking during the handover ceremony at Iganga District headquarters on Tuesday, Lydia Taaka, an agriculture officer with the ministry, said the seedlings would benefit selected farmers in Iganga and Bugweri districts.
Taaka said the seedlings are of a variety resistant to coffee wilt disease, which has affected coffee production by destroying plants and reducing yields.
“Coffee wilt disease has been disturbing farmers by attacking the roots of coffee plants, but this variety is resistant,” Taaka said.
She encouraged residents to embrace coffee growing, saying the crop had become increasingly lucrative due to rising demand on the market.
Taaka said farmers could earn substantial returns from coffee production, urging them to establish more plantations to take advantage of the available market.
Dr David Muduli, the chairperson of Nile Source Cooperative Union, welcomed the government’s intervention, saying it would help farmers expand coffee production and improve their livelihoods.
He said the 50,000 seedlings would be distributed to 500 farmers, with each beneficiary expected to establish a one-acre coffee plantation.
“We requested these seedlings through the Operation Wealth Creation programme, and we are excited that the government has finally delivered,” Muduli said.
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He added that the cooperative was preparing to venture into value addition to enable farmers to earn more from their produce.
Muduli, however, appealed to the government to extend more support to the union, particularly in strengthening its value-addition initiatives.
The distribution is expected to strengthen coffee growing in the two districts while providing farmers with an additional source of income and supporting the government’s poverty alleviation efforts in the region.
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