Inside the farmers’ quest for seeds as rains continue.

The rains have been pounding most parts of the country at least since mid-August and this has been seen as a blessing to farmers.

Depending on the area where one dwells, this kind of weather is good for planting both cash and food crops.

In some places, there are now blossoming crop gardens like maize, beans and groundnuts. Whereas in coffee and tea planting areas, the farmers are set to plant at least when the rains still fall.

However, the main challenge for most of the farmers is the scarcity of seedlings especially for enterprises like coffee and tea where they have always relied on the Government.

The Government through National Agricultural Advisory Services (Naads) has been supplying quality seeds to farmers every planting season. But, the wait is on as currently the farmers are not aware of when these supplies will be made.

It is not that the Government has run short supplies for the seedlings but because there are no funds to buy them from the nursery beds.

The nursery bed operators who were expecting money from the government are stranded with seedlings that are fast growing without being transplanted in the gardens.

Recently, some of them petitioned Parliament demanding answers on why the Uganda Coffee Development Authority (UCDA) cannot take their seedlings.

“Your humble petitioners ask the Ministry of Finance, Planning and Economic Development to allow coffee nursery farmers to supply seedlings this season to the ready farmers and payments be made later when funds become available so that the seedlings do not go to waste in the nursery beds” reads part of the petition.

These nursery bed operators are not only stranded with seedlings but also grappling with unpaid arrears for the previous supplies made to UCDA.
Since the start of the rainy season, lawmakers have been fronting the plight of their farmers who are waiting to receive coffee seedlings for planting. In some places, the farmers even prepared their gardens hoping that the government agencies would deliver the seedlings.

Some MPs are worried that the decision to channel money meant for extension services to the Parish Development Model (PDM) is a stumbling block on the coffee subsector which is one of the highest foreign exchange earners for the country.

“However, following the launch of the Parish Development Model (PDM) programme and , from March to May 2022 season, coffee nursery operators have been stopped from supplying coffee seedlings to UCDA yet they continued to receive overwhelming demand from farmers who had prepared farms to plant seeds” Rosemary Nyakikongoro, the Sheema District Woman MP.
Deputy Speaker Thomas Tayebwa has been one of the key advocates for the immediate action to have farmers supplied with coffee seedlings. A representative for Ruhinda North in the western District of Mitooma, Tayebwa recently told Parliament that his constituents are not only coffee farmers but additionally tea farmers who are also waiting to receive seedlings.

The farmers and the coffee nursery bed operators are all in pain because of the silence by the government since March 2022 when the first planting season of the year fell but passed without any good move.

According to the Devoted Coffee Farmers Initiative Uganda, a farmers’ organization that brings together a cross section of coffee growers and coffee nursery operators from all coffee growing regions in Uganda, coffee seedlings worth about Shs71b have overgrown and are going to waste.

After Parliament directed the Minister of Finance, Matia Kasaija and Agriculture Minister, Frank Tumwebaze to present a joint statement on the status of funding for coffee and tea seedlings, the wait has been on for nearly a month. Parliament insists it appropriated funds for the purchase of coffee and tea seedlings.

The Executive Director for UCDA, Emmanuel Iyamulemye has since revealed to the Parliamentary Committee on Agriculture that the entity that is charged with distributing coffee seedlings has not been financed though money was budgeted for.

“We need guidance on coffee seedlings. We have Shs19b in arrears and we cannot incur another bill before the Ministry of Finance gives us the money” Iyamulemye stated when probed by lawmakers.

At the end of last week, Parliament still referred to the Committee on Agriculture a short statement presented by State Minister for Fisheries, Hellen Adoa on behalf of her colleague, Bwino Kyokulaga, the State Minister for Agriculture.

In the statement, the Ministry did not give outright responses to when the seedlings will be supplied to the farmers but instead informed Parliament of further engagements within the Executive.

The Ministry confirmed that indeed with the funds being channeled to PDM, there is a challenge with supply of seeds because the Parish Development Savings and Credit Cooperative Societies (SACCOs) where the money is supposed to be channeled are not yet fully funded.

“The strategy under PDM is to push funds into Parish-based SACCOs from where farmers can borrow and acquire inputs of selected enterprises. This approach however, led to the withdrawal of budgets for inputs previously held in Ministries Departments and Agencies like NAADs and UCDA that used to support procurement and distribution of seedlings to farmers” read part of the statement.

The Minister asked for more time because the Ministry continues to wait for guidance as President Yoweri Museveni directed Vice President Jessica Alupo and Prime Minister Robinah Nabbanja to work out modalities through which the nursery bed operators could supply the available seedlings to farmers and then government pays them later

Away from coffee, farmers in northern Uganda are set to receive supplies of sunflower and soya bean according to the Executive Director of Naads, Samuel Mugasi. He revealed that Naads has procured seeds and is working with Uganda Oil Seeds Production Organisation to launch the supplies in northern Uganda.