By Chris Mugasha
BUSHENYI: A total of 421 coffee farmers across the sub counties of Bushenyi district on Tuesday left the district stores with a smile on their faces!
This followed a release of 840 bags of fertilizer which were handed over to the coffee farmers.
The function that was presided over by the Bushenyi district Deputy Resident Commissioner Katsigazi Donanta took place at the district’s stores in Nyakabirizi town.
The Bushenyi district Principal agriculture officer Nicholas Kagurutsya said the fertilizer is one of the government’s interventions which are aiming at increasing coffee production.
“After the application of this fertilizer, we want to see a difference in your gardens,” he said.
Kagurutsya disclosed that they had requested for over 8000bags but only 421 were allocated to the district. “Government wants to see the results of this intervention first so that it can be able to expand,” he said.
The Ministry of agriculture and fisheries regional (Bushenyi, Rubirizi Districts) coffee officer Dick Nuwamanya said government’s strategy and target is to attain atleast the exportation of 8million bags of 60kgs of coffee by 2030. Currently Uganda exports about 2million bags. Uganda is the 2nd coffee producer in Africa after Ethiopia. On the international globe, Uganda takes the 8th position. “Our target is to rank the 6th position with atleast 8.9million coffee bags getting exported,” he explained.
“We’re still behind interms of coffee production and the emphasis now is to increase production by 2030,” Nuwamanya said. He encouraged the coffee farmers to practice better agronomic practices.
Katsigazi cautioned farmers against selling the fertilizers instead of boosting their gardens. “Let us not disappoint government. Let us prove that more fertilizer is needed,” he warned. End.
