Mayiga visiting John Ssentongo Kyamanyi’s five-acre coffee farm in Butambala district recently
Charles Peter Mayiga, the Katikkiro (Prime Minister) of Buganda Kingdom, has explained why retaining Uganda Coffee Development Authority (UCDA) as an independent entity is in the best interest of the stakeholders.
Mayiga says the Buganda’s ‘Emmwanyi Terimba’ Initiative was started in 2016, as a means of addressing the poverty the kingdom witnessed during the Ettoffaali Drive (2013 – 2016).
“UCDA joined us and provided 10 million seedlings and extension services which led to improved crop quality and quantity,” Mayiga said via his official X handle.
He added that “selling our coffee without value addition results in lower earnings. However, even wealthier Brazil and Vietnam, which grow more coffee, also sell “kase” (FAQ) because the large European and American markets consume freshly ground coffee at the end consumer outlet.”
He notes that UCDA should be funded further and retained to: advise on good farming practices; improve quality of the crop on the farm and after harvest; raise the quantities produced; popularize the drinking of coffee; and explore possible bi-products from the coffee bean.
He says Government attempts to control the coffee industry have raised concern; the Coffee Bill 2020 which had punitive clauses like imprisonment of a farmer who abandons his/her farm; entering into an agreement with Enrica Penneti- giving her a monopoly over the coffee chain; and now the UCDA (Amendment) Bill which aims at scrapping an agency superintending an activity upon which millions of Ugandans depend for their livelihoods.
“These maneuvers point to unclear motives, more so when the stakeholders’ views are not respected,” Mayiga said.
Mayiga’s views come a few days after President Yoweri Kaguta Museveni vigorously defended his government’s decision to collapse the Uganda Coffee Development Authority (UCDA) downplaying the role it has played over the years in coffee development.
In a seven-page response to the opposition against rationalizing UCDA, Museveni said Operation Wealth Creation (OWC) which is under his brother Gen. Salim Saleh and himself have done more than what UCDA has done in improving coffee productivity and marketability.
“If UCDA and NAADS were successful, why were 68% of the homesteads still outside the money economy by 2013? OWC did much more work than NAADS and UCDA and CDO combined. In the Masaka area, Col. Nsamba, has distributed 1,000,074, coffee seedlings and caused the planting of 38,666.6 acres of coffee. OWC also gave out other planting and breeding materials: tea, fruits, pigs, cassava, etc., etc. That is how, for the first time in the history of Uganda, the number of the households in the money economy, is now 67% and those outside the money economy are 33%,” Museveni said.
He added that it is fraudulent for NAADS, UCDA, UDA among others to claim that the big boost in agricultural production is because of their efforts and that if they are not there, production will suffer.
“I am the one who promoted the massive dairy production in the cattle corridor – all the way from Bukanga (Isingiro) to Karuma in Kiryandongo district. My dairy cattle evangelism would have reached the Karamoja border if leaders were humble enough to learn new things. I have been bringing delegations from all over Uganda to learn from the success in the cattle corridor to Rwakyitura, Kisozi, Nyakaana, Mrs. Kizza of Masaka etc. It is only Speaker Anita Among who promptly copied my example of cattle rearing when she visited me at Kisozi. She has now more than 1000 cattle,” Museveni said.
The President also castigated what he called tribalism that has characterized, the debate on coffee.
There has been stiff opposition from MPs from Buganda over the rationalizing of UCDA.
The MPs have argued that doing so will adversely affect coffee production in the region. But Museveni wouldn’t have any of it. “To be condemned, are those who I hear try to bring in the nonsensical tribalism. When Katikkiro Mayiga joined us in promoting coffee, we welcomed him. However, as OWC demonstrated, we were already moving…It is, therefore, sheer dishonesty, to bring up tribalism where the NRM is involved. The massive industries the NRM has built, are mainly in Buganda-Namanve, Mukono, Kapeeka, Matugga- Gombe area, Luwero Industries in Nakasongola, Kisozi, etc. These have direct benefit to nearby populations if they are well guided to take advantage of them,” Museveni said.
Parliament stayed the second reading of the Coffee Bill after a raucous session from the opposition MPs accusing the government of trying to push through a “poisonous” amendment.
