Dr. Pascal Musoli, Senior Research Officer at NaCORI
Dr. Pascal Musoli, Senior Research Officer at NaCORI
The European Union (EU), through its partnership with the French Agricultural Research Centre for International Development (CIRAD), is playing a pivotal role in advancing coffee research in Uganda. With a commitment of €713,000, the EU is supporting the National Coffee Research Institute (NaCORI) in developing drought-tolerant Robusta coffee varieties—a critical step towards safeguarding the future of Uganda’s coffee sector in the face of climate change.
Coffee is not just Uganda’s leading export crop; it is also a livelihood for millions of smallholder farmers. However, changing weather patterns, prolonged dry spells, and rising temperatures increasingly threaten yields. Recognizing this, the EU has prioritized climate resilience in agriculture, ensuring that innovations developed in research institutions can directly improve farmers’ lives.
Promising Results from EU-Supported Field Trials
Currently, 17 experimental varieties are being tested in drought-prone districts including Nakaseke, Ssembabule, and Ntungamo. Early results are encouraging: four varieties are showing exceptional tolerance to heat stress while maintaining high yields.
According to Dr. Pascal Musoli, a senior breeder at NaCORI, the new lines are producing larger, more abundant cherries compared to existing commercial varieties and are holding up well under high temperatures.
To benchmark their performance, researchers are comparing the drought-tolerant plants against Uganda’s leading commercial varieties—KR8, KR9, and KR10. These established varieties yield between 3,100–4,800 kg of green beans per hectare annually, and the new drought-tolerant lines are already performing within this range, despite being only two years into trials.
A Structured and Transparent Approval Process
The EU strongly values scientific rigor and transparency in agricultural research. Before new varieties reach farmers, they undergo a meticulous approval process in Uganda.
In this article, Dr. Musoli explains in detail, the process scientists and researchers follow before releasing new coffee varieties.
He says researchers have to first compile scientific facts about the varieties. “They have to present the science of these varieties to the internal committee within NaCORI. The scientists/committee within NaCORI will then vet whether these materials qualify to be new varieties. The Committee ensures that all facts and data desired by the committee above is included,” he says, adding that if it passes this stage, NaCORI and the researchers write a technical report which is submitted to the Director General, NARO, who asks his Committee, made up of different experts to critically look at the NaCORI report and the presentation of the scientists/researchers.
“They always don’t pass anything anyhow. They’ll have to screen it and in case there’s missing data, they’ll give us feedback to fill the missing gaps. If it is convincing, they’ll submit the report to the Ministry of Agriculture’s Variety Release Committee. When it reaches that level, we have no control. The Committee will then invite the scientists to make their final presentation. It is that Committee that will accept your variety as new or not. The new variety should have unique characters different from what we have released before. It should meet the farmers’ needs and be good for the development of the country,” he explains, adding that it is at this stage that they announce the release of a new variety for commercialization.
After the release of the new varieties, multiplication of planting materials begins.
“We are in the second year of evaluation. We expect to have a concrete report in the 3rd year which will be discussed here. After the report is presented to the office of DG, NARO, it will take another six months. Then it will go to MAAIF. From there, it can come quickly or delay but normally it doesn’t go beyond six months. For multiplication, which is a continuous process, we shall have a few materials available to nursery operators for multiplication as soon as the variety is released. That can take another two years before the plantlets are available to the farmers. It is not an easy process, so, to have plantlets in big numbers available to farmers can happen in five to seven years after the release,” Dr. Musoli explains.
He says multiplication will be by various vegetative methods.
“Here we have the tissue culture facility which can accelerate the production of these materials in large numbers or on a large scale,” he says, adding: “NaCORI has adopted a method called mini-cuttings where we produce a few plantlets from the lab and chop those plantlets internode by internode. They are still younger shoots but can still develop roots or regenerate them in a special environment.”
Like Coffee Wilt Disease Resistant varieties (CWDr) commonly known as KR (Kituza Robusta) varieties, Dr. Musoli says the third approach is planting the selected plantlets in mother gardens that serve as a source of cuttings that are potted into polythene bags. These develop roots and grow into plantlets that are served to farmers.
Naming varieties
Dr. Musoli says the name of a variety is adopted at the Committee Release Committee Level, but quickly added that farmers, who are the end-users are the best in naming varieties.
For example, MAAIF had named the Coffee Wilt Disease Resistant varieties lines “Kituza NARO Robusta Variety 1-10, but farmers deemed it too long and simply called it “KR”.
The nine wilt resistant varieties are now known as KR1-10. It’s important to note that KR2 has since been withdrawn over performance related issues.
Coffee plays a significant role in Uganda especially the western Uganda in districts like kasese, however some of the coffee trees are now too old which is now leading to low yield
My suggestion is that let’s promote coffee growing even in Central areas and Urbanised areas where people can use small sacks.