Issue link: https://read.dmtmag.com/i/1461678
28 STiR coffee and tea / Issue 2, 2022 (April / May) By Dan Engel U Ugandan Coffee Farmers Ugandan Coffee Farmers Can't Bee-lieve Their Luck Can't Bee-lieve Their Luck ganda produces a staggering 282,000 tons of coffee per year. That makes this landlocked country in East Africa the eighth largest coffee-producing nation in the world. But as rosy as it sounds, it hasn't always been a smooth ride. In the late 1990s, Ugandan coffee farmers produced between 2.8-3.4 million bags of coffee. They had big plans to expand output to 5 million. Despite a program en- couraging farmers to plant more and expand production, output remained the same. Experts were puzzled. Despite buying more land and planting more coffee, farmers saw their average yield stay the same—in some cases, it even fell. Coffee in Uganda struggled with coffee wilt disease but that wasn't enough to explain the results. Curious farmers and government officials turned to science for the answers, and what they came up with might just surprise you: bees. A study by Patrice Kasanganki of the National Agricultural Research Organization (NARO) showed that a combination of rising human population and deforestation had devastated the bee population. That explains why coffee yield was stagnating in recent years despite government investment. So NARO began to advise coffee farm- ers to start beekeeping. And after only a short amount of time, farmers began to see impressive results. "A few years ago, I was a miserable coffee farmer who did not earn much from my coffee plantation," said Alex Masba, a Ugandan coffee farmer. "To boost my coffee output, I introduced bees to my plantation." Case and point: one farmer's 20-acre plantation used to produce 6,800kg of dry coffee per year. And after he started beekeeping, the yield increased to 9,000kg. And not only did the yield increased, but some farmers even reported a sweeter taste in their coffee. The sweet smell of success Coffee is one of the most important export crops in Uganda. It represents 19% of the country's exports. To say that it's the lifeline of Uganda is no exaggeration—1.7 million families farm it on small plots of land. "A few years ago, I was a miserable coffee farmer who did not earn much from my coffee plantation. To boost my coffee output, I introduced bees to my plantation." — Alex Masba, Ugandan Coffee Farmer Coffee is essential to Uganda which has 1.7 million smallholder coffee growers. (Photo credit: Andrew Hetzel.)