Writer: Frank Tumwebaze (Minister for Agriculture, Animal Industry and Fisheries). PHOTO/FILE/HANDOUT
First of all, I think many have chosen to play politics and aren't willing to understand the merits of why government wants a streamlined and rationalised structure of delivering services. I don't think that they are debating the development of coffee anymore. It's only politics that I see.
The exercise of rationalisation is not about Uganda Coffee Development Authority (UCDA) alone. It's a re-organisation of the entire government structure of service delivery. Rationalisation seeks to eliminate scattering of scarce resources across many government institutions doing the same work. It seeks to consolidate resources and efforts. Is that a bad policy?
Certainly not. I see other voices saying that why not reduce on the other arms of government? That's not a problem. May be this rationalisation of agencies debate could give us a starting point on the need for an entire public sector reform ( Parliament size, cabinet, districts etc.).How can someone say that I don't trust the intentions of government but yet again trust UCDA? UCDA is part of government and was created by government. I think Ugandans forget so easily.
The very voices now bidding for UCDA, were the same that harshly condemned UCDA last year that it had withdrawn membership from the International Coffee Organisation (ICO) and that because of that withdrawal, Ugandan coffee was going to suffer and lose market. I haven’t seen Ugandan coffee lose market. On the contrary, the prices have been increasing exponentially.They condemned UCDA, condemned me as minister, and called us all sorts of names as clueless people messing up the coffee sector.
The same voices that condemned UCDA for withdrawing from ICO are the same now claiming that UCDA is internationally accredited. That is why I chose to sometimes keep quiet on some of these people especially when the debate is deliberately driven to take on unnecessary polarising sentiments. My appeal to them is that coffee is for all of us.
Whoever has a garden of coffee; small or big (like I do personally) is an equal stake holder. Its therefore arrogance to believe and assert that coffee is for a few or a certain region. This is wrong and it doesn't help the future of our country. Then there is talk that the ministry of agriculture can’t handle the work of UCDA. That the ministry has no capacity. This is another falsehood. What is that UCDA work that is so complex? The staff at UCDA are agronomists that offer agricultural extension work just like those of the ministry.
Most, if not all, those staff at UCDA came from the ministry and moved to UCDA because of better pay that agency had over ministries. The current MD of UCDA, for example, Dr Emmanuel Iyamulemye, came from MAAIF. So, there is nothing technical that UCDA staff are doing that ministry of agriculture staff can't do. The difference has only been in staff remuneration.
UCDA has been licensing actors in the value chain and regulating for export standards. Is that too complex not to be done in the Ministry? The same desk will be put in/returned to MAAIF to do the same, just like it will be for dairy products. So there is nothing that UCDA has been doing that will be lost.
The Ministry of Agriculture, Animal Industry and Fisheries (MAAIF,) like any other ministry, is structured according to the public service governance framework. It has three divisions of crop, livestock & fisheries with all enabling departments. The departments can be expanded as scope of work expands.
The ministry has been here since the colonial days. All staff in UCDA and other agencies came from it (MAAIF). Agencies like UCDA & NAADS, have only been more funded than MAAIF and this has been a cross-cutting problem in the whole government. A problem that now the government wants to fix with rationalisation.
There aren't systems, therefore lacking in MAAIF. All the ministry needs is more staffing and funding. Be it UCDA or MAAIF, the real production of coffee is done on farm by private people, the farmers. The major role of government is to avail the farmers quality disease free and resistant coffee seedlings. The other role is regulation of the whole value chain to ensure adherence to the correct agronomical practices.
The disease-free seedlings that have helped Uganda to develop its coffee crop have for years been developed by NACORI-Mukono (the national coffee research institute) which is under NARO not UCDA.As the minister of agriculture, I have been appealing to all authorities (ministry of finance, Parliament etc.) to increase funding for agricultural research, but we never get that much needed support. How I wish all those voices well mobilized and charged for UCDA can join me to advocate for more funding to NACORI/NARO which is the breeding house for all the coffee we are proud of.
Currently, coffee seedlings are scarce. In most coffee nursery beds, a seedling of coffee is now about to hit Shs3000. The demand is so high. That means NACORI must be funded more to produce more and more disease-free coffee foundation seed for the nursery operators to multiply. There is no future of coffee if the development of the current high-quality disease-free foundation seed being produced by NACORI isn't prioritised and funded. I ask all those doing coffee activism to know this.
All a coffee farmer wants is: Correct seed and correct advisory on handling the commodity across the value chain and markets. This can be done by UCDA or any other government department that is designated and supported. We don't have to spend sleepless nights debating this. If UCDA hadn't been supported by the government, what would it have done?
Has MAAIF been doing nothing? Certainly not. Despite it being a chronically under-funded ministry, it has been fighting all diseases in the country and pests (FMD, coffee wilt, banana wilt , etc) successfully. So, if we want the future of coffee guaranteed, let's fund more NARO/NACORI to continue producing more affordable disease-free coffee varieties.
The rest will be done by the farmers and other value chain actors. Any other agency or department can be tasked and supported to do quality control and enabling regulation.
The writer, Frank Tumwebaze, is the minister of Agriculture.
