Livingston Mpimbe, 67, has been a farmer almost all his adult life. His well-maintained twenty-acre-coffee plantation located at Misanvu Village in Kibinge sub-county, Masaka District is testimony of his long experience as a farmer.

The farm from which he harvests an average of 800 hundred sacks of dried coffee annually has also become a research centre in recent years for agriculture students who wish to gain specialised practical knowledge about coffee growing.

And Mr Mpimbe is ever there, happy to share with the students what he has himself learnt from many years of hard work. He is also often used as a resource person in coffee farmers’ workshops in the district.

He is the Chairman of Kibinge Coffee Farmers Association, which comprises 47 coffee farmers groups each with a membership of 35 farmers. “We monitor each other and we work together to ensure that we enhance our coffee production, especially in the area of quality for it is quality that makes the big difference with regard to attracting better prices,” he said in an interview on May 11th.

He said they hold regular meetings and learn about the best methods of coffee picking and sun drying. They also learn about coffee planting, general crop management and soil fertility conservation. They discuss strategies for fighting the much dreaded coffee wilt disease.

Guiding farmers

The association further arranges workshops for the farmers to learn how to deal with coffee farm accidents such as snake bites, or burns from herbicides. They get guidance from Uganda Coffee Development Authority (UCDA) about what herbicides and fertilisers to use.

The association’s field staff, Mr John Mark Kasule, said, “I keep a file for every farmer and it is possible for the association to trace whose coffee quality did not measure up to the required standard.”

They guard against picking green coffee, drying it on bare ground, which contaminates it with stones and animal droppings, and keeping the harvested crop in moist dark conditions that lead to malting.

The association has a partnership with UTZ Kapett of the Netherlands, which is a coffee-buying organisation. Mpimbe clarified, “We have entered into an agreement with them to ensure that we provide good quality coffee in exchange for good prices. They have offered to our farmers some tarpaulin sheets on which to dry the coffee. They also keep updating us on the quality standards that they require.”

The experienced farmer says that it pays to dig trenches across the coffee plantation, especially if it happens to be on a slope, just as his is. “Rain water gets trapped in the trenches and gets absorbed into the soil for the coffee trees to use.

That water brings with it a lot of manure that it collects from wherever it passes. When the trench gets filled up with soil, it’s better not to remove the soil out but rather to dig another trench all together. That’s free water and free manure that you get on the farm.”

How has he dealt with the coffee wilt disease that is threatening to wipe out the coffee crop? “It is a big threat and challenge,” he says. “But a determined farmer must fight on. Uprooting the infected trees is the most preventive method.

And upon noticing that a tree is infected, no matter how laden it may be with coffee berries, my advice is uprooting it and burning it! As soon as the tree develops the very first symptoms of the disease, it starts to be dangerous to the nearby trees as the protozoa move from it and spread.

A farmer must time and again walk through his farm to examine his crops. That way, he will know as soon as possible which trees are infected.” He does not believe that it is necessary to wait for two years before planting another coffee seedling in the place where an infected one has been uprooted as most agriculture extension workers advise.

“My experience has taught me that when I plant new seedlings in that very spot, they do grow and I get good plants. Well, in some instances, they too dry up. But I try again and again because a farmer should never get tired of trying.”

Recently, Mpimbe acquired an irrigation system at the cost of Shs16m. “It is now possible for me to determine when I want my coffee trees to flower. And it is always good to do this before the rains start and when all the bees in the wilderness are looking for flowers to pollinate.” And indeed there was a lot of evidence of successful pollination on the farm as nearly all the coffee trees depended on supports, quite laden with coffee berries.

He can now pump water into the big tank at his coffee nursery. “Before, I used to pay up to Shs60,000 a month to a boy to bring the water to the nursery. Now I spend only about Shs30,000 to pump enough water for the nursery for six months.”

At the nursery, he clones coffee seedlings and also plants Upland Arabica coffee seedlings in pots which he sells to other farmers. Upland Arabica coffee seedlings are particularly marketable these days because they are resistant to the coffee wilt disease. Two acres of his farm are under Upland Arabica coffee while the rest are under cloned Robusta coffee.

Mpimbe advises farmers to plant trees in the coffee gardens. The crop requires plenty of shade, he says. “But it is important to select the trees carefully. Some trees such as eucalyptus are no good in a coffee farm or even near it. But there are trees that will even add nutrients to the soil.” He did not elaborate much on what trees to grow but avocado, jack fruit and orange trees were seen on the farm.

source : www.monitor.co.ug