Government through Ministry of Agriculture, Animal Industry and Fisheries (MAAIF) has intensified the fight against coffee diseases by constituting a technical team with members from NARO, Uganda Coffee Development Authority, as well as the Ministry Headquarters.
The team has been tasked to conduct an emergency assessment of the complaints raised by farmers about strange coffee pests and diseases attacking their farms.
The move stems from reports obtained from these farmers from Sembabule and Gomba districts by the President where they complained of strange pests and diseases affecting their coffee trees.
Yesterday, MAAIF technical team comprising of Dickens Murungi and Gilbert Asaasira (both from the Department of Crop Protection) together with UCDA and NARO staff reached to the field for an assessment of the impact caused by these pests in the said districts.
The team also delivered 19 motorized knapsack spray pumps for demonstration on control of coffee pests and diseases to Gomba and Sembabule District Leadership.
The team discovered the Black Coffee Twig Borer and Coffee Red Blister Disease on those farms in addition to observing some strange disease causing wilting on one of the farms in Sembabule District.
The NARO team from Kituuza NaCORI picked the samples for Laboratory Analysis in an effort to identify the real problem.
The Ministry’s swift intervention brought smiles on CAO-Sembabule, Malik Mahabba who said it was a big relief to them as district leaders who have been approached by concerned farmers severally for assistance.
He said this would enable the problem to be arrested before it causes more damage to farms.
Meanwhile, Nalwanga Sarah, the coordinator of the Presidential Initiative on Poverty Alleviation in the nine villages of greater Kisozi commended MAAIF for forming this technical team which she said would properly contain the problem.
“These strange diseases came at a time when farmers are about harvest their coffee which is now like gold. I couldn’t sit down and watch my farmers crying. I thank the Ministry of Agriculture for the action taken in time. I will now peacefully rest at home knowing the problem is solved”. Nalwanga added.
Uganda’s coffee sector has about 1.7 million small-scale household farmers with at least 2.8 million households depending on it for a living.
Of these households, 1.17 million grow the Robusta variety, which unfortunately faces the threat of pests and diseases.
One of the most common diseases of this variety is the Coffee Red Blister Disease (CRBD), commonly known in Central Uganda. It is caused by a fungus called Cercospora coffeicola.
The disease manifests itself with small-red and slightly raised spots that appear on both the green and ripening coffee berries that later enlarge and join, forming unsightly red blisters on them.
