Coffee is Uganda’s leading foreign exchange earner generating millions of dollars every year.
The plant is mainly grown for its berries which are grinded to give a caffeine beverage liked by most of the world’s population.
Coffee varieties in Uganda
In Uganda we have mainly two Coffee varieties grown:
Robusta coffee
Arabica coffee
Before you choose which variety of the two will grow, first consult soil experts to confirm if it can thrive in that region.
Soil Requirements
The soils must be well drained fertile soils with a high organic content.
Coffee needs a pH level of 6-7
Its better to first do soil testing to know the soil pH and the nutrient composition before planting.
When you add mulch to the soil you will not only maintain the moisture but you will also enrich the soil’s organic content.
Planting
▪Proper field preparation because coffee production is going to be a long term investment.
▪Mark position where you are to put your coffee plants using pegs arranged in regular patterns to facilitate management.
▪Use Spacing of 88ft for Robusta or 1010ft for Arabica.
Meaning we can have over 640 plants in one acre for robusta and 450 plants for Arabica.
(With the new High density system ,you can have over 1000 plants in One acre)
▪Dig holes of 2ft *2ft (depth and width)
▪Apply at least half a basin of farm yard manure in each hole and mix it with the top soil, half fill the hole. You can use Protilizer Organic Fertilizer with just 2 handfuls per hole.
▪Obtain coffee seedlings for planting from reliable commercial nursery beds, make sure that the seedlings are disease free, not wilted or have no form of deformity.
▪Planting coffee seedlings should be at the onset of rains.
▪Put a small shade around each young plant to protect it from drought stress or scotching sunshine.
▪Also ring mulch to keep the soil around the plant moist and to prevent weeks from growing.
▪Be sure to have a spraying routine against insect pests and disease.
Harvesting
With an average of 450 coffee trees of say Robusta coffee in an acre you can harvest about 3kgs per plant per season
Hence you can harvest over 1.3 tones per season with best management practices.
Each kilo of graded dried coffee is about 8000shs hence 10 Million shs per season
You start harvesting at 18 months and you will keep harvesting for over 10 years
However at 6-7 yrs you are advised to do stamping of all your old plants such that they can create a new generation of stems.
Harvest coffee beans when their color changes from green to ripen red.
This is important because when you mix in unripe beans, on drying they will spoil the quality of the beans.
Market for Uganda Coffee
The coffee you grow can be sold to traders or coffee exporting companies; however you should be conscious of brokers who go an extra mile to buy the crop before even the trees bear berries.
The market for coffee is too big that we can’t even supply half of the target ,Uganda has a target of producing 20million bags per year but we are producing max 5million bags now.
