For many, Uganda might not be the first country that comes to mind when thinking of high-quality Arabica coffee, especially since the country has been traditionally known as a producer of Robusta. The country has the ideal climate and geography for coffee production, yet producers do face various infrastructure challenges. The slopes of Mt. Elgon in the East (bordering Kenya) are ideally suited to produce high-quality specialty coffee.
Kyagalanyi is one of the entities tapping into this budding potential and making it possible for smallholders to participate in specialty markets. In Uganda, they operate three sustainable Arabica washing stations. The largest of these washing stations is in the Mt. Elgon region, a programme that incorporates processing infrastructure with agricultural extension services.
One of the key areas covered by the programme is Manafwa. 2,508 smallholder producers belonging to
the Kyagalanyi group delivered cherries for this Manafwa lot, 1,624 of which are male and 122 are female.
All participating producers are smallholders whose families have grown coffee for generations. The
average farm size is only around 1 hectare, and on this land most families also grow a variety of
subsistence crops such as matooke (cooking banana) and fruit trees, beans, peas, millet and coco yam. Although matooke is also an important cash crop, coffee is the more valuable source of income for most families, particularly for livelihood improvement investment. It represents about 80% of the farm acreage and provides the cash flow required for large investments (school fees, livestock, land, house construction etc.), whereas matooke provides a week-on-week regular cash flow for smaller day-to-day purchases.
