Coffee farmers have petitioned Parliament to direct the Ministry of Finance, Planning and Economic Development to allow coffee nursery farmers to supply seedlings to planters for later payments.
The petition was presented to Parliament by Sheema District Woman Member of Parliament Rosemary Nyakikongoro and seconded by David Muhumuza, Mwenge County South lawmaker during the plenary sitting on Wednesday.
According to the petitioners, on May 12th and 20th 2022 Parliament directed that coffee seedlings be given to farmers and permission be granted to nursery operators to supply all overgrown seedlings in the nursery beds as the March-May 2022 planting season was running out but no guidance was issued.
The farmers now want the Finance Ministry to give guidance on the matter of overgrown seedlings that were verified by the Uganda Coffee Development Authority (UCDA) for farmers to plant during 2022 coffee year.
The petition stated that following the launch of the Parish Development Model (PDM), and from March to May, coffee farmers were stopped from supplying coffee seedlings to UCDA, yet they continued receiving demands from farmers who had prepared their farmland land for planting.
Dicksons Kateshumbwa, the Sheema Municipality Member of Parliament and his counterpart, James Kaberuka of Kinkizi County West faulted Government for failure to support coffee farming which he says jeopardise the country’s economic growth.
In response to the House chaired by Deputy Speaker Thomas Tayebwa, the Minister of State for Agriculture, Animal Industry and Fisheries Bright Rwamirama said that the farmers’ concern will be tabled for further consideration in a Cabinet meeting slated for Monday August 19th 2022.
However, Tayebwa directed the Ministers of Agriculture and that of Finance to present a progress report on action taken on Wednesday August 31st 2022.
The concerned petitioners disclosed that coffee seedlings estimated to cost Shillings 71 billion have overgrown and are going to waste if no immediate intervention in the interim is made by the Government.
Coffee is Uganda’s most valuable crop employing about 1.7 million small holder farmers across 108 districts in Central, Western, Eastern and some parts of Northern Uganda, with the majority of the country’s coffee being exported to Europe. Economists have ranked Uganda as Africa’s largest coffee exporter, overtaking Ethiopia as the continent’s largest coffee producer.