By Joshua Kato
Janny Winfred Oyella has been a major factor in the development of the coffee industry across northern Uganda, having worked as a regional manager for northern Uganda, under the Uganda Coffee Development Authority (UCDA).
She has also been a coffee farmer for the last 14 years.
“I started coffee farming in 2010, after 12 years of interacting with coffee farming communities,” she says.
For Oyella, coffee has been a pension crop when she retired from active service. Today, she has 17 acres of coffee in two locations.
“I have two acres at Lacor parish, Lamogi sub-county in Amuru district,” she says, adding that she set up this plantation in 2010 as a strategy to drive mindset change in the community.
“This was meant to demonstrate to communities in the non-traditional coffee growing Acholi sub-region that the crop can do well there,” Oyella says.
The second plantation is in Paminyai sub-county, Nwoya district, occupying 15 acres, where she says: “My target is to expand to 25 acres by 2026.”
Introducing the cash crop
About 20 years ago, UCDA introduced commercial production of the crop in the non-traditional growing areas.
These included mid-northern districts of Apac, Gulu, Kitgum, Lira Pader, Oyam, Amolatar, Dokolo and Amuru. Despite scepticism from farmers at the start, some persisted and embraced coffee farming.
Today, they are reaping the rewards. The reluctance to grow coffee in northern Uganda was due to the fact that there were no farmers growing the cash crop there.
“As a young adult, my major interest was to achieve mindset change of the farming communities towards growing coffee,” Oyella says.
Today, Omoro, Gulu and Kitgum districts have significant numbers of coffee farmers. Since coffee is a perennial crop (productive for 40 to 60 years), she believes it is a sustainable source of income for households in the sub-region.
Oyella adds that it would offer employment opportunities, especially to the youth.
“Coffee is an important export commodity and in Uganda, it has historical will from the Government for development,” she says, noting that “growing coffee is a big boost to food security, as the plantation can be intercropped with bananas, beans, groundnuts and fruit trees.”
Oyella also sees the crop as a source of land security, as it was off land conflicts with neighbours and potential encroachers.
“I knew that as long as land is occupied by some cash enterprise, nobody will encroach on it,” she adds.
Bearing fruit
Oyella’s coffee farming crusade is already bearing fruit.
According to the 2023/24 UCDA report, Acholi region produced 284,725 bags, each weighing 60kg, compared to barely 100,000 bags 10 years ago.
Omoro district was also listed among the top 30 districts, with the highest coffee production out of over 70 coffee producing districts.
Of the 17 acres of coffee this year, eight were in production, while the rest were 1-2 years old. From the first two acres that she planted, she harvests 2.7 tonnes of coffee. From the remaining six, from which she began harvesting in 2022, she gets 5.1 tonnes of coffee.
From this year’s farm gate price of sh6,500 to sh6,700 for kiboko (dry cherries grade), she earned a gross of sh48.6m.
In the next year’s season, she is expecting more, as the yield increases and as the trees grow older.
Innovations on the farm
Other than the climate-smart agriculture practices, such as timely planting, mulching, shade trees and water retention trenches, she carries out drip irrigation on the farm.
“I have innovated drip irrigation using a three-litre jerrycan, buried near each young coffee plant, to mitigate the effects of dry spells,” Oyella says.
In order to maximise returns from the same piece of land, she is practising intercropping.
“I have also initiated the growing of coffee in the same planting holes with bananas on the sunset side. I remove the banana plants in the second year to improve the survival rates of the young plants, especially during dry spells that last three to four months in the sub-region,” she says.
Value additional
Oyella does farm based value addition on her coffee. This includes pulping it into parchment and roasting.
“I am informally promoting roasting for local consumption,” she says.
Good farming practices
Oyella, who is also the northern Uganda regional coffee officer at UCDA, advises farmers growing the crop on early planting to stem the effect of dry spells.
She says, when coffee is planted early in the first season, between February and July, the survival rate stands at 90%, unlike in the second season, between September and November, where it reduces to 60%- 70%.
Oyella also advises coffee farmers against planting premature coffee seedlings, noting that the best coffee seedlings are those that have been in the nursery bed for a year.
She adds that those seedlings have firm leaves and strong stems and tend to have at least five leaves.
Oyella advises farmers to practice intercropping, so that the coffee flowers are not aborted during dry spells.
“The intercropped bananas will protect the coffee flowers from direct sunshine and also improve humidity,” she says.
In an acre of coffee plantation, Oyella says one can plant at least 112 banana plants to provide shade to the coffee trees.
Marketing
“My earlier plan was to sell all my coffee as value added. So, I started by buying some coffee from farmers, adding to my harvest and transporting it to Luwero district, about 330km away, for processing. I later discovered the cost of transportation and handling losses were outweighing the profits,” she says.
At the time, there was no coffee milling plant in northern Uganda. After picking some for roasting for the small local market, buyers come and buy Oyella’s coffee in kiboko (dry cherries) form from her home.
It has become a minimarket for the crop for other farmers during the coffee season. The goal is to form a cooperative society for bulk marketing in future as volume increases.
Challanges
Oyella says among the challenges is the struggle to get reliable labourers from the community, especially for weeding and harvesting.
She says she has to hire labourers from neighbouring districts and West Nile sub-region.
“There is also a challenge of high cost of irrigation equipment to support coffee production, especially during dry spells, which affects the growth of the trees and increases the cost of production,” Oyella says.
The farmer notes that emerging pests, such as the coffee wilt arising from climate change, affect some parts of the shamba.
“Affected trees are uprooted, hence causing losses and reducing productivity,” she says.
Employees
Oyella employs five permanent workers, including a farm manager. During harvesting, however, she hires more temporary labour.
Overall, she spends around sh1m per month on labour.
Her family members are involved in running the farm regularly. At peak seasons, they join the hired labour to pick coffee.
Plans
Oyella’s plan is to acquire a mini roaster, a grinder and a coffee maker to successfully achieve her goal of transforming the farm into an agro-tourism site, through ecosystem management practices. Other such plans include bee hives, fish ponds, fruit trees, forest restoration, floras and faunas.
“I also plan to turn my farm into a centre of excellence for coffee growing in northern Uganda,” she says.
Drying and storage
Oyella harvests only red ripe cherries, which dry immediately on racks and tarpaulins.
She explains that the racks facilitate faster drying than when the coffee is on the ground. It also prevents the coffee from getting contaminated with dirt in case of rain.
At night, the racks are covered with tarpaulins, which she says prevents the tedious task of removing the coffee in the evenings and bringing it out in the mornings. Regarding storage, Oyella uses an incomplete house in her compound, which she says is well-ventilated, thus facilitating drying.
She adds that the coffee bags are placed on tarpaulins laid on the floor, which prevents the coffee from absorbing an earthy scent, since the floor is not cemented.
“I plan to have well-structured stores by end of 2025,” Oyella adds.
LEAD PHOTO CAPTION: Oyella coaching community members on harvesting only red ripe cherries to maintain quality.
