The Independent Uganda: You get the Truth we Pay the Price
Kampala, Uganda | THE INDEPENDENT | Price fluctuations should not be a reason for farmers to stop investing their time and resources in coffee cultivation, Buganda Premier Charles Peter Mayiga has said.
He says that for a farmer to demand for higher prices of the crop, he or she should have it in stock first since the one who doesn’t grow it in plenty cannot think of negotiating for reasonable prices.
Mayiga was responding to coffee farmers in Mawokota county in Mpigi district where he had on Tuesday gone to carry out a routine inspection on the coffee farms to which the Kingdom usually gives seedlings in its bid to uplift the living conditions of the people of Buganda through agriculture.
However, the county chief, Kayima Gabriel Kabonge was not in position to tell how many people have so far benefited in the initiative and how many seedlings have so far been given out to the farmers.
“All I can tell is that very many people have benefited in the Mwanyi Terimba initiative of the Buganda Cultural Development Foundation which started over ten years ago,” Kabonge told URN in an interview adding that the demand for coffee seedlings among the people of Mawokota increases day by day.
Michael Yombe, a resident of Bukemba village in Kituntu sub county had earlier told the Katikiro that although the challenge of coffee prices dropping every time had been raised all the time by many farmers, it has persisted leading to many of them getting demoralized.
He wants Buganda government to help farmers find an international market for the crop which they are promoting for farmers to grow on a large scale. Yombe also cried out over pests and diseases affecting their crops amidst counterfeit pesticides that are widely on the market.
Haj Isack Lukenge, the chairperson for Bucadef however told the coffee growers that Buganda government is yet to solve the problem after establishing a company in the names of Emwanyi Terimba Ltd to deal with the matter.
Apart from selling the coffee abroad, Lukenge says that the company is also expected to process the coffee and sell it locally because there is enough market for its products in Uganda. He has warned the farmers against losing the hope to grow coffee saying that when its prices shoot up, it would be impossible for one to grow the crop on short notice.
Mayiga said that the talk of transforming Buganda into a developed Kingdom should not stop at lamenting but urged the people to put it into practice by working harder which would at the same time help individuals to do away with poverty.
Mayiga was in company of Prince David Wasajja, the first deputy premier Haj Twaha Kawaase, Kingdom agriculture minister Hajat Mariam Mayanja and her deputy Haj Hamiis Kakomo, Buganda information minister Noah Kiyimba and Mpigi deputy RDC Hellen Kaweesa who inspected various farmers in Butooro village of Nkozi sub county, Bukemba in Kituntu sub county and Kayabwe town council.
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