By Dickson Kulumba
Katikkiro of Buganda Charles Peter Mayiga has urged the Uganda Parliament to consider dropping the bill intended to rationalize the coffee regulatory body, Uganda Coffee Development Authority (UCDA).
Mayiga says that UCDA is very crucial in promoting the quality and quantity of the cash crop giving an example where when the Kingdom started the Emmwaanyi Terimba (campaign intended to promote coffee growing) in 2016, the agency came on board and had a Memorandum of understanding.
In this MoU, the agency gave out ten million coffee seedlings to Buganda Cultural & Cultural Development Foundation development body of the Kingdom which was distributed to farmers by the end of 2019.
Mayiga made the remarks while addressing the Kingdom subjects from different sub-counties at Bulange-Mmengo on October 29, 2024, and requested that when Parliament resumes should drop the bill which Speaker Anita Among said is heading for a second reading!
“Once again we urge Parliament to retain UCDA and ensure it’s funded further to play those five roles at the moment,” said Mayiga.
These roles Mayiga include among others; training farmers on good and appropriate farming methods, ensuring quality of the crop on farm and after harvest, ensuring sufficient quantities, popularizing coffee drinking and exploring and identifying the coffee by-products that can be realized from the coffee beans.
After doing that, Mayiga advised government to consider beefing up funding UCDA to increase its productivity and provide crucial services to the farmers.
“What needs to be done is to fund UCDA even better so that their outreach can get to every corner and every farmer in the country,” Mayiga advised.
Uganda earns more than $900m per last financial year. About two million households amounting to between 12-15 million people being sustained by Coffee.
From that note, Mayiga said if one would like to earn as much as possible or more than they earn presently, the Uganda Coffee Development Authority should be retained among the very important agencies the country possesses.
According to UCDA reports, 50% of the country’s coffee exports arise from Buganda Kingdom.
LEAD PHOTO CAPTION: Katikkiro of Buganda Charles Peter Mayiga addressing the Kingdom subjects from different sub-counties at Bulange-Mmengo on October 29, 2024. Photo by Dickson Kulumba
