Buganda Kingdom has appealed to the central government not to shut down the Uganda Coffee Development Authority since it’s closure will damage the country’s development and people working in the organisation will lose their jobs leading to poverty. This comes at atime when the goverment was planning to shut down the Uganda Coffee Development Authority.
During his meeting with the board governing the UCDA, the Buganda Premier Owek Charles Peter Mayiga noted that the UCDA represents Uganda in looking for coffee market in other countries, getting good quality coffee for coffee farmers, guiding coffee farmers with modern farming techniques, and farmers earn income from their coffee, therefore shutting it down will greatly affect the country’s economy.
The Katikkiro added that the youth need to be prioritised to engage in developmental activities but not only to concentrate in bodaboda riding. And urged women to engage in coffee farming as well.
The Chairman for UCDA Dr. Ben Mugoya appealed to the Katikkiro to lead the campaign to see that the Ugandan coffee gets to the European Union market.
Minister of agriculture in Buganda Kingdom Owek Haji Hamis Kakomo commended the partnership between UCDA and Buganda kingdom for greatly changing people’s livelihoods since the campaign has been extended to different Buganda counties.
The BUCADEF board chairman Dr.Ben Ssekamatte noted that the partnership has helped people to fight against poverty among themselves as many have joined coffee farming and more people have continuously expressed the need for coffee seedlings.
However, he noted that however much coffee farming has positively impacted people, it has encountered challenges such as lack of enough training farmers, poor soil conservation, lack of modern farming methods, among others.
This meeting was aimed at looking at how far the partnership between UCDA and Buganda kingdom has gone and the challenges that have so far been faced ever since the contract was signed.
The UCDA has gifted the kingdom with a coffee processing machinal as a token of appreciation for the good partnership.
