Mr Joseph Ssekabembe at his home in Madudu Sub-county in Mubende District on October 25, 2024. PHOTO/BARBARA NALWEYISO
When Mr Joseph Ssekabembe started transforming from subsistence to commercial farming about 10 years ago, some of his life dreams included a modest home, driving a car and building rentals to boost the family income.
He had not put to full use his piece of land located in Kiryamakobe Village, Madudu Sub-county in Mubende District. His idea of venturing into coffee planting and embracing the improved farming systems to achieve his life dreams have started bearing fruit.
From his 22-acre coffee garden, Mr Ssekabembe recently built a house of his life's dream, bought a car and has constructed some rentals.
The 2023/2024 coffee season harvest greatly boosted the Ssekabembe family to realise some of their dreams because of the prices that almost doubled those of the previous season.
Unlike many farmers in the district, Mr Ssekabembe believes that the good yields that gave him more than 160 coffee bags from the 2023/2024 harvest season have been a mixture of hard work through seeking farming knowledge from experts and good farming practices.
“I have always attended the coffee training workshops organised by the Uganda Coffee Development Authority (UCDA) to get more knowledge about the coffee crop and sought advice from the experienced coffee farmers to get good coffee yields,” he says.
Mr Ssekabembe’s coffee farm has been expanding over a period of time. From the initial 10 acres, he added more 12 acres targeting a bigger yield. The 22-acre garden has mature coffee plants that recently brought a smile to his face after the harvest and sale of the coffee beans.
Like any farmer who has several life dreams, Mr Ssekabembe spared some money from the coffee proceeds to purchase an extra piece of land measuring about 10 acres for coffee in Kyengeza Village, Madudu Sub-county, Mubende District.
The coffee garden at the new farm is not yet mature but he has high hopes of becoming a model coffee farmer in the greater Mubende area.
Mr Joseph Ssekabembe in his coffee plantation located in Kiryamakobe village, Madudu Sub-county in Mubende District. Photo/Barbara Nalweyiso
“I now have 32 acres of the coffee crop. Because of my good farming practices after a long investment in acquiring more farming skills, I now stand out as a model farmer in Mubende District and was nominated by UCDA as a most promising farmer, which led to a cash award of Shs32 Million from the European Union,” he says.
The cash award from the European Union was to boost good coffee farming practices and also ensure that he trains several other farmers about good farming practices for better yields while maintaining the coffee standards.
Managing the farm
From dreaming about taking his children to school and meeting the basic family needs, Mr Ssekabembe’s dreams are now focused on bigger family projects and ensuring that he shares his coffee farming knowledge with other farmers in Mubende District.
While Mr Ssekabembe’s major source of farm labour was initially his household and a few workers, the expansion of the gardens called for additional workers to ensure proper farm management. He now employs about 50 workers on his farm, with the majority as casual workers.
From simple expectations as a smallholder farmer, Mr Ssekabembe had no dream of ever employing workers in his garden. But the coffee crop is expanding his farming dream to include the community, several of whom now work at his coffee farm.
While climate change is a big worry to the farming sector in Uganda and the world at large, Mr Ssekabembe believes that when the farming population embraces good farm management practices and sticks to good farming methods, the coffee industry will thrive.
“I do share the good farming practices with my immediate community to ensure that we learn to sustain our respective coffee farms for better yields. We can only thrive under the climate change conditions if we embrace good farming practices as farmers,” he says.
The boom
The sudden rise in the coffee market prices caught many farmers by surprise. While the coffee harvests were not significantly different from those in the previous season, the market price for the coffee beans for the 2023/2024 season was very good for the farmers. Many farmers got to realise some of their life dreams.
“By being able to take my children to good schools, building a good house, the car and expanding on the rentals, this is a big blessing. We pray that the coffee prices remain stable in the future,” Mr Ssekabembe, who earned about Shs120m from his coffee farm, says.
Mr Ssekabembe, who believes in knowledge sharing among the farmers, is optimistic that the coffee farming industry will have a bright future if the farmers embrace knowledge sharing and stick to good farming practices. He also appeals to the government to initiate farmer-friendly policies for the farming sector.
“I give credit to the UCDA, which has always provided different training in coffee farming. I have always sacrificed a little time from my busy farm schedules to attend the UCDA-organised farmer training to boost my farming knowledge. I believe that the knowledge we get is good for all the other farmers,” he says.
Coffee exports for Uganda during the year 2023/2024 totalled 6.35 million (60kg) bags with record export earnings totalling $1.4 billion (Shs5.147 trillion) in coffee sale earnings. The average coffee prices for Robusta coffee at farm-gate ranges between Shs6,000 and Shs7,000 per kilogramme while the fair average quality (processed) goes for Shs13,000 and Shs13,500 per kilogramme, the UCDA monthly report for September shows.
