UPDF’s Contribution to the Coffee Sector Cannot be Underestimated.

By Lt. Marjorie Ndagire Mutebi

The recent debate on the Coffee Amendment Bill (2024), intended to rationalize farming by transferring the Uganda Coffee Development Authority (UCDA) to Ministry of Agriculture, Animal Industries, and Fisheries (MAAIF), has underscored the role of different government institutions including Uganda People’s Defense Forces (UPDF) in promoting coffee production.

UPDF through its Operation Wealth Creation (OWEC) is among the institutions that have promoted coffee by distributing millions of coffee seedlings to farmers in different parts of the country and also performed extension services. Unfortunately the people opposed to the rationalization of UCDA ignore these contributions and heap all the praises on UCDA.

In 2016, the late Maj. Gen. Julius Oketta who was deputy coordinator of Operation Wealth Creation, revealed that UPDF had distributed 98 million coffee seedlings to farmers across the country as part of a campaign to increase coffee production and export. Oketta also noted then that the distribution of the elite coffee variety was intended to push Uganda to achieve its target of increasing coffee exports from the then 4 million 60kg bags to 20 million 60kg bags annually.

In its campaign, OWEC distributed 100 coffee seedlings to each farmer in several districts including Masaka, Bukomansimbi, Rakai, Lwengo and Kalungu. These seedlings later boosted coffee production that we see today. Uganda the second leading producer of coffee after Ethiopia in Africa with its revenue rising from $883.3 million (sh3.26 trillion) to $1.14 billion (sh4.21 trillion) in the fiscal year 2023/2024.

In 2021/2022, Uganda recorded one of its highest coffee exports of 6.26 million bags each of 60kgs from 5.83 million bags and today, the country produces 9 million bags worth over $1.14 billion (sh4.21 trillion) in the fiscal year 2023/2024.

The coffee wilt disease hit the country in the early 1990s significantly affecting coffee production before President Yoweri Museveni came up with different initiatives through government institutions to reverse the situation and restore coffee.  UPDF was one of the institutions President Museveni entrusted and used to boot coffee production.

However, during the heated debate on the Coffee amendment Bill in Parliament, some protagonists showered UCDA with praises for single-handedly promoting coffee farming. That was the reason they stood their ground against the plan to transfer UCDA to the Ministry of Agriculture. The group composed of mainly Members of Parliament from Buganda and Bugisu some of the regions famous for growing coffee in Uganda. The MPs argued that the transfer of UCDA would reverse the achievements Uganda has registered lately in coffee production.

The Katikkiro of Buganda Kingdom, Owek. Charles Peter Mayiga backed the group’s position against the transfer of UCDA to Ministry of Agriculture. However, like anyone who had played a key role in restoring coffee farming in Uganda, President Museveni recently penned a missive, explaining the combined role of the different government institutions including the UPDF in boosting coffee production.

In a statement on X after the reading of the Bill by Parliament endorsing the transfer of UCDA to the Ministry of Agriculture, H.E President Yoweri Museveni said that it is the National Resistance Movement (NRM) government as a whole that promoted coffee production from the 2 million bags in 1986 when they assumed power to the current 9 million bags worth $1.14 billion (sh4.21 trillion) in the fiscal year 2023/2024.. He also cautioned Buganda MPs and the Katikkiro against tribalizing the coffee production debate. With President Museveni’s analogy, UPDF’s  and other government institutions contribution to restoring coffee production to the current levels should never be underestimated and hence they deserve credit for their roles.