By Patrick Okino
The Uganda Coffee Development Authority (UCDA) has called upon the people of Lango sub-region to take up coffee growing to eradicate poverty.
Earlier this week, UCDA conducted a campaign in Lira code-named ‘coffee run’ at Mayo’s Garden in Lira City whose target is to promote coffee consumption and production.
The field team reported that coffee production in the sub-region is growing faster with support from the government.
Describing coffee as a better enterprise for the sub-region to improve people’s livelihood, Nicholas Okino, the regional coffee extension officer in charge of northern Uganda said that farmers are now taking the coffee enterprise seriously and they believe that through the crop, they can fight poverty.
He reported that the sub-region had received over two million seedlings courtesy of the Operation Wealth Creation under the Ministry of Agriculture, Animal Industry and Fishery.
“The demand is so high because farmers have seen the benefits of growing coffee and right now as we sit in our offices, farmers are coming for seedlings,” he said.
Okullo Moses Awany, the regional coordinator for Lira, Otuke and Alebtong districts said many farmers are coming on board though they have a challenge of drought, however, it is being managed.
He explained that they have advised farmers to mitigate the problem by planting shade trees, covering crops and mulching to care for their coffee well.
He added that in the region, specifically Lira district and the City they have close to 3000 farmers and most of them have 400 trees.
“New farmers are registering. We are not distributing seedlings, but farmers have started purchasing seedlings on their own,” he says.
