KABALE RESIDENTS URGED TO INCORPORATE COFFEE GROWING INTO THE PARISH DEVELOPEMENT MODEL

By Our Reporter

KABALE

Kabale District leaders have today handed over 525 bags of organic fertilizer to coffee farmers, in a bid to boost coffee growing in the district.
According to the Uganda Coffee Development Authority, Regional coffee extension officer for Kabale and Rukiga district, Yowasi Muhereza, the fertilizer was requested by Kabale District Local Government through the office of the District Agriculture officer, to improve on coffee production in the District.

The Kabale District Principal Agricultural officer, Deus Baguma Bagambana, commended the Uganda Coffee Development Authority for the donation, which he said comes at a time most farmers are beginning to embrace coffee growing.

He observed that it encouraging that several farmers in district have started to embrace coffee, saying that Kabale has been lacking a cash crop.
He however, advised the farmers to be mindful of coffee diseases, like coffee leaf rust and coffee belly disease, which could hamper their production efforts.

The former Butanda Sub County councilor Eric Tumwesigye Kigunzu, who represented the farmers, called for more donations for coffee farmers, if the growing of the cash crop is to take shape.
He also called on the district production department to organize exposure visits for coffee farmers, from where they can learn more and advanced technologies and methods in coffee growing.
Kigunzu, however, said that farmers have continued to neglect coffee growing, which hampers government’s efforts in improving their incomes.
The Kabale District Male Youth councilor, who is the secretary for Production, Marketing Natural Resources, Trade, Industry and Local Development, Ronald Bagamuhunda, commended Uganda Coffee Development Authorities for the donation, saying soils in Kabale have continued to lose fertility.

Handing over the fertilizer at Kabale District Yard in Kabale municipality, the Kabale District Vice Chairperson, Miria Akankwasa Tugume, who represented the District Chairperson, Nelson
Nshangabasheija, called on the farmers to incorporate coffee growing in the Parish Development Model, which government recently rolled rolling out the Parish Development Model-PDM.