Coffee Farming as a Business for farmers.

A picture of ripe coffe ready for harvesting

Coffee is one of the major cash crops in Uganda though of late many farmers were discouraged from growing it. This was mainly because of fluctuating prices. Farmers should still regard coffee farming as a business just as our grand parents did. True the prices fluctuate a lot but one major cause of this is production of poor quality products which do not yield much in the market. Quality must be kept through good management especially during harvesting and post harvest handling. In areas of Eastern Uganda, coffee is being cut down in favor of sugar cane growing. Because it is a perennial crop, once planted the farmer is able to yield for many years as long as the crop is well looked after.

In order to have good quality coffee, the following must be given attention.

• Use of clean planting materials free from diseases .
Under take proper husbandry practices and management on a timely basis e.g. pruning, de-suckering, stumping, manure, weeding.
• Put in place systems of tracking field operations and the costs.
• Good harvest and post harvest handling especially during harvesting.
• Make sure when harvesting only ripe red cherries are picked. After picking the coffee beans, dry on raised platforms made of mats or wire mesh, for those that can afford, cemented drying yards are recommended.

Once the coffee is dried properly, it must not be allowed to become wet again as this causes mould, spoiling the liquor quality.

Proper dried coffee (kiboko) should attain moisture of 13% before being sold off and rattles when shaken. In conclusion, land is a scarce resource and farmers must weigh the benefits against opportunity cost of using available land for coffee production.

Mulopi J. Celac Mayuge District farmers’ network

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