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on moving away
from the traditional
research to the all-
inclusive-demand-
driven research. He
said this direction
would allow the
Scientist to focus on
priorities determined
by the stakeholders
to ensure greater
capacity to generate,
share and make
use of agricultural
knowledge
for
development among
all actors.
The
Managing
Director UCDA, Mr.
Henry
Ngabirano
assured members
that
government
had put in a lot
of effort in coffee
especially through
supporting planting
and replanting and
that was one of the
reasons why the
year’s exports hadhit
3.5Million bags.
On the policy, he said that after passing
the coffee policy, the government
through UCDA had embarked on
drafting the Coffee Strategy that will
operationalize the policy and that the
success of the implementation will
largely depend on the intra-institutional
coordination and cooperation.
In the spirit of the theme about the
Youth, the next speaker, Mrs. Fortunate
The first speaker was the outgoing
President of the UCF, Mr. David Barry
who gave general global outlook of
the coffee and its dynamics regarding
diverse subjects. He said the prices
have firmed up due to reduced output
from the giant producers (Brazil) adding
that with high prices we could achieve
more; “We could invest aggressively;
encourage farmers to invest and
promote their businesses; and also
farmers can earn a good return for their
endeavors” saidMr. Barry.
On the local scenehemaintained that the
internal environment remainedextremely
competitive confirming the efficiency
of the free market with a number of
processors and exporters growing and
significant levels of investment being
made in all segments of the value chain.
On Production he said weather
conditions and absolute prices at farm
gate were the key drivers of coffee
production, though the major issue
facing the Ugandan coffee producing
community was that of productivity.
He advised farmers to embrace coffee
farming as a good commercial business
because it is important for incomes and
to the future of the industry. He thanked
UCDA, supported by the Government
of Uganda, for their active engagement
in the promotion of coffee planting and
replanting. He closed his remarks by
requesting NaCORI to look beyond
breeding and understand the best way
of controlling pests and diseases and
soil fertility.
Next wasDr.Wagoire, Director NACORI
who took the opportunity to take
the stakeholders through the vision
of NACORI that was now focused
Paska tackled another important issue;
the gender perspective in coffee.
She emphasized that women formed
the backbone of the world’s coffee
production. In Uganda they provide
an estimated 60%-80% of the labour
for coffee production but despite
providingmuch of the labour into coffee
production they often have unequal
access toor control over resourcessuch
as land, limited participation in trainings
and skill development, limited decision-
making powers on the use of coffee
outputs or income, and stressed that
only 15% of coffee traders are women
with a mere 6%of those at higher ends
of value chain. More to that evidence
suggests that youth engagement in
coffee value chain was also limited.
Like women, youth had limited access
to land and were less likely to access
credit, extension services, or belong to
farmer organizations. She requested
Government to ensure that the policies
passed are gender responsive and also
support associations of women by
providing services, business linkages,
building their capacity and confidence.
To crown off the speeches theGuest of
HonorGeneralCalebAkandwanahoaka
