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CONCLUSIONS &
RECOMMENDATIONS
CONCLUSIONS
a)
Research (NaCORI)
(i)
Currently NaCORI has no capacity to supply tissue
culture materials required by the coffee industry for
plantingmaterial multiplication.
(ii)
There are only three technical staff at the station but
numbersareexpected to increasesince the Institution
is now a fully-fledgedResearch Institute.
(iii)
The screen house facilities are in poor state to hold
the required number of planting materials targeting
oncoming seasons.
(iv)
The station has started a Robusta germ-plasm
recollection program in order to conserve the genetic
diversity of thematerials distributed in different areas
of the country.
b)
CoffeenurseryOperators
(i)
Nursery operators have no formal Memorandum of
Understanding (MoU) with UCDA which is crucial in
building their relationships. Production of planting
materials is based onmutual trust.
(ii)
Themain Arabica coffee type propagated by nursery
operators is Arabica coffee (SL14, 18, 28). This is
because the variety has been tried and passed the
test of time. It is believed to perform better in the
highlands than any other type of coffee; however,
UCDA is unable to meet the required seed demand
for propagation by nursery operators.
(iii)
Most nursery operators complained of late payment
by UCDA with the delays ranging from six to twelve
months; UCDA remains by far the biggest buyer for
plantingmaterials.
(iv)
The price of planting materials has not changed in
the last five years though high inflation rates has led
to increased propagation costs related to inputs
requiredduringplantingmaterial production.
(v)
Nursery operators are faced with a challenge of
increased costs of transporting planting materials to
sub-county central collectionpointswhere farmers or
farmer groups collect them.
d)
CoffeeFarmers
Coffee production remains a dominant economic activity in
most of the districts in the study area and oldplantations and
fieldswereestablishedmore than20years. Most respondents
revealed that they inherited the coffee plantations and have
carried out continuous replanting to boost production since
the outbreak of CWD.
(i)
Coffee farmers have planted over 98% elitematerials
compared to cuttings for Robusta while SL 14 is the
most commonly plantedArabica coffee variety.
(ii)
Farmers requiremoreagronomic training tomaximize
productivity especially with the increasing climatic
change effects due to long dry spells. Productivity
can increase to 3Kg/tree from the present 2Kg/tree
with better fieldmanagement.
(iii)
UCDA supplies coffeeplantingmaterials at nocost to
farmers but cannot satisfy farmers’ demand. Planting
materials are often delivered late towards the end of
the rainy seasons leading to high death rates during
field establishment
(iv)
Farmers have small pieces of land for coffee
expansion, so they have resorted to cutting down
natural vegetation including trees toplant coffee. This
has negatively affected the weather in most coffee
growing areas
(v)
Some farmers are not prepared to receive and
manage the field establishment activities leading to
highmortality rates due to lateplantingor noplanting
at all
(vi)
Political interests / donations in form of planting
materials has left farmers to rely on free materials
leading to lack of concerted efforts to properly
manage their fields.
(vii)
There are no proper guidelines for the distribution of
coffee seedlings leading to farmers without land for
expansion to claimmaterials which they later sell to
fellow farmers at a lowprice.
RECOMMENDATIONS
a)
ResearchOrganization (NaCORI)
(i)
The institutionshouldconstruct a tissueculturecentre
dedicated tocoffee researchwithsupport fromUCDA,
development partners and private sector actors
to improve its core mandate and technical back-
stopping of private sector tissue culture laboratories.
(ii)
Collaboration between NaCORI and private sector
tissue culture laboratories should be improved in
order to strengthen thedevelopment of tissue culture
technology in the country tomeet demand for CWDr
materials given the increasing annual death rate of
20%.
(iii)
The relationships between NaCORI and other
private TC Laboratories and nurseries should be
strengthened through sharing information on new
technology development in the propagation industry.
(iv)
CollaborationbetweenNaCORI and theprivatesector
should be strengthened to facilitate the development
