Kampala — THE Uganda Coffee Development Authority (UCDA) is to plant 200 million coffee seedlings in wilt-free districts in the next five years.

The sh19b coffee replanting campaign is aimed at reviving coffee plants that were attacked by the Coffee Wilt Disease and those that were destroyed by farmers following the decline of prices eight years ago.

The campaign was launched in Isingiro district by Henry Ngabirano, the UCDA managing director.

Ngabirano said the campaign would start with 20 million seedlings this financial year.

He kicked off the campaign by donating 50,000 coffee seedlings to Isingiro farmers.

The seedlings were received by animal husbandry state minister, Bright Rwamirama, who handed them over to the beneficiaries.

Rwamirama said the coffee industry was badly hit by the wilt in the 1990s.

He said before the wilt attack, Uganda was exporting about 12 million bags of coffee, but the amount fell to about 2.5 million bags.

Rwamirama said when the campaign materialises, coffee exports would rise to 5.5 million bags in the next two years.

"This is possible. We are all determined to achieve our target. Figures from UCDA show that last year, we exported about 3.5 million bags," he said.

Rwamirama stressed the need to maintain quality at the farmer and factory levels. "We have identified a market in US, but we can only access it with quality coffee," he said.

Ngabirano said scientists at the coffee research centre in Kituza, Mukono, had developed eight coffee varieties that are resistant to the wilt.

He told farmers to uproot and immediately burn any coffee plant suspected of being infested with the wilt disease.