By Vision Reporter
NUCAFE-Cooperatives has been recognised among the winners at the 2024 Best Farmers Awards happening at Vision Group’s head office in Kampala today (December 11).
For decades, coffee has been Uganda’s main cash crop leading in export earnings yet many of the coffee farmers have remained poor.
Joseph Nkandu, the executive director of the National Union of Coffee Agribusiness and Farm Enterprises (NUCAFE), explains that while growing he saw his parents struggle to get money for his school fees yet they were growing coffee.
“It is hurting to see coffee farmers struggle with incomes yet they are in what has for long been considered to be the most paying cash crop in Uganda and the world which would mean that they would be earning big and have a simple life,” he says.
After completing his bachelor’s at Makerere University, he founded a coffee farmer association which realised that there is a need to revamp the association such that farmers can take charge of their own coffee business.
“To foster organization of coffee farmers, we formed NUCAFE in 2003 with 60 farmer groups which have since increased to 237 coffee farmer groups from all over the country and this has made the association national,” he says.
At the time, farmers would sell off their coffee while still on the trees and others would even sell flowers and those who would persist would sell unprocessed dried coffee (kibooko). Thus, the association had to embark on a journey to enable farmers to sell processed parchment.
Nkandu explains that for any group to affiliate with the association, it pays an annual subscription of sh100,000. They also hold annual general meetings where they discuss but also share important information with members but leaders can be called for a meeting in case of any emergency.
Deus Nuwagaba, the chief operations officer at NUCAFE explains that quality is assurance starting from the farm level and this was achieved by training farmers not to let coffee beans fall down as it can pick up the smell of the soil.
He adds that after harvesting, they are encouraged to dry their coffee on ranks and in a clean place away from any smell.
Also, after drying, you should have a clean and dry store. Avoid bulking wet coffee and storing your coffee in a leaking store to avoid moulds which result into Ochratoxin A (OTA) which is very poisonous yet the world is now more concerned with food safety.
On receiving coffee from the farmer at the factory, the coffee is weighed and tested for moisture content. If it is not well dried, it is re-dried at the factory as unprocessed coffee (kibooko) or using a dryer.
To ensure quality, coffee is cleaned at all the stages starting with the first pre-cleaner machine then to the second pre-cleaner machine and to the hulling. It is then taken to the destoner machine that removes stones.
Because coffee is bought according to screen size, parchment is taken to the grader, a machine that grades the beans according to the size ranging from screen 18, 17, 15 and 12 that determine the pricing.
“This wasn’t the case for the farmers before joining NUCAFE, which increases farmer income at over 250% from what they used to get when selling Kibooko. It is also taken to the gravity table to test for retention/bean density for acceptable size according to screen size,” explains Nkandu.
This is the ninth year running that Vision Group, together with the Embassy of the Netherlands, KLM Airlines, dfcu Bank and Koudijs Animal Nutrition, are running the Best Farmers competition. The 2024 competition run from March to November, culminating in today’s awards ceremony.
LEAD PHOTO CAPTION: NUCAFE receiving their award at the 2024 Best Farmers Awards. Photo by Mpalanyi Ssentongo
