Bukoba — Kagera Cooperative Union (KCU 1990 Ltd) has appealed for government intervention to ensure regulations and by-laws governing the coffee crop are strictly enforced so that farmers get higher prices.
KCU Chairman, Mr Ressy Mashulano told the 'Daily News' in an interview that local government authorities including District Councils had mandate to supervise the by-laws governing the crop cultivation.
He was responding to reports suggesting that 'Black coffee' has negatively affected coffee price.
"Local government authorities including District Councils have mandate to supervise the by-laws governing coffee crop. This burden should not be left to the Union alone," he said.
Elaborating, he said 'black coffee' was mainly attributed to poor management of the coffee from farm level.
"Some of the unfaithful farmers harvest coffee while still premature, while others did not take enough efforts during the drying. My appeal to the farmers is to ensure proper management and process the coffee to add value and get attractive payments," he said.
Mr Mashulano explained that the government in collaboration with other stakeholders including Tanzania Coffee Board (TCB), Cooperative Unions, Tanzania Agricultural Research Institute (TACRI), Café Africa Tanzania and the private sector are implementing a five-year strategic plan aimed at increasing coffee production from 78,000 metric tonnes to 300,000 metric tonnes by 2025.
The plan goes hand in hand with producing 20 million improved coffee seedlings each year.
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He added: "The Kagera Cooperative Union (KCU 1990 Ltd), recently distributed over 600,000 clonal varieties to the farmers free of charge for the planting season. The increase of coffee production in the region has positive impact on farmers' livelihoods and the national economy."
He explained that during the 2022/2023 crop season KCU had planned to distributed over one million improved coffee seedlings to the farmers.
During the past three years coffee production in the region increased from 52,000 tonnes during 2018/2019 to 78,300 metric tonnes during 2020/2021 enabling the farmers to pocket about 96.4bn/-.
In the course, farmers are encouraged to adhere to best crop husbandry practices by uprooting and destroy through burning the affected coffee trees, farm cleanliness, mulching and timely use of inputs and fertilizers.
They should replace the old coffee trees in favour of the clonal coffee varieties which are resistant to coffee wilt disease (CWD), for increased yields and earn more money.
The clonal varieties were high yielding and resistant to the coffee berry disease. A well-managed coffee plant could produce up to two kilograms enabling a farmer to pocket at least 6,000/- per kilogram. Clonal coffee yields three times more coffee and is resistant to the coffee wilt disease.
The word clonal means that the coffee plants have been multiplied asexually from a single parent plant or clone. Kagera farmers produce robusta coffee which constitutes 50 percent of the total coffee production in the country.
