The Katikiro of Buganda, Peter Mayiga, has called out to the government to engage coffee farmers in value addition. He says this motivates them to do better in producing coffee of more quality.
The Katikiro said this while in Ssese County, Kalangala District on his two-day visit. While in the islands, he was preaching better coffee farming practices in a drive dubbed “Emwaanyi terimba”.
Currently, the Island has more than 1000 coffee farmers who engage in coffee growing. However, many of the farmers have been spending up to Ugx 60,000 to transport a bag of coffee to Masaka for processing.
This inspired one of the residents there to get a coffee processing machine to help coffee farmers in Ssese lower expenses in processing farmers. Peter Mayiga though thinks it can get better if the government is involved.
“This is a private initiative by a private citizen so we would call upon the government to get involved in all these stages. Marketing is the key in these areas. First of all within the country and secondary beyond the borders. So when we talk about value addition, we support it as the Kingdom. However, we want it to be done in the right stages and phases that should be done.”
According to him, the coffee business can get better if the government gets really involved and does not leave it to the locals.