Dennis Mubiru, a 32 year old island journalist had just reclaimed his land in 2016 when Katikiro Charles Peter Mayiga launched the emwaanyi terimba drive.
The drive which is supposed to intensify the growth of coffee within the Kingdom of Buganda and around the country was spearheaded by the Katikiro, as one way that would influence an increase in household incomes amongst the subjects of Buganda.
Mubiru who was about four years in his journalism career, working with the Kingdom based Central Broadcasting Services – CBS FM (89.2) was pandering on whether he would start up a side income that would help him grow his earnings.
“At the time, we were still earning less, and yet we were beginning to start up families. I had to plan for a future that served my children with basic care and education,” Mubiru says.
At the beginning of the Emwaanyi terimba drive, the Buganda Prime Minister indicated that the idea is meant to rebuild the Agricultural economy for all the subjects within the kingdom through better agriculture practices, post harvest handling and access to the market.
“Coffee has been, time immemorial, the back bone of the economy within the country. The Kingdom seeks to uplift the subjects within its reach through further coffee growing and value addition.”
It is upon such background that Mubiru decided to engage, start coffee growing as one of the means he would use to get more income for the future.
“I went, prepared Six acres of land and requested for coffee seedlings. I and my colleagues went planting as we also awaited for what the future could hold.” Mubiru said
The planting of coffee in Bube – Dajje Kalibata saw Mubiru intensify care for the garden, learn best farming practices as he hoped for a brighter future.
“I also started rearing goats and pigs to supplement my work in the area. As i worked on news stories, i also found time to look after the garden,” he says.
Mubiru, last year started cultivating with some mearger fruit bearing. “You know, the fruit bearing stage starts with minimal output. As time goes on yeilds increase,” Mubiru adds.
The six acres now, together with the other journalism works now act as Mubiru’s source of income. Mubiru believes he can now cater for the basic needs of his family.
“I intend to expand my coffee garden. For it is one that will help me achieve my intended objectives in life. We all seek a brighter future.” Mubiru boasts.
Just like Mubiru, several other journalists have benefited from the intensified quest to have an increase in productivity of coffee.
In Masaka alone, Journalists Farish Magembe, Ezekiel Ssekweyama and Pascal Lutabi are engaging in such farming in Masaka, Kalungu and Kyotera districts, each with more than 5 acres of the cash crop.
For Kalangala, three more journalists who asked not to be named also engaged in coffee growing.
An acre of a good coffee breed offers an average of Ugx 18 million a year according to statistics from the Uganda Coffee Development Authority.
Katikiro Charles Peter Mayiga will on Monday morning return to Ssese County Kalangala District to intesfy quest for coffee growing.
Katikiro, in the emwaayi terimba drive, will visit three farmers including Paul Ssemanda who also holds a coffee processing machine in the islands, Kizza Dan Kyeswa and Eugine Kitatire, who all follwed the kingdom’s advice on coffee growing.
According to the Kingdom statistics, emwaanyi terimba drive has increased production and productivity of coffee, one of Uganda’s leading exports by 35%.
The Kingdom also incepted a coffee factory dubbed emwayi terimba which has so far invested more than Ugx 1.5 billion in buying coffee from farmers, securing market for farmers.
The company buys fair average quality coffee known as Kase from farmers who bring it to the company’s warehouse in Namanve. The prices he says range between UGX 6700 and UGX 7000 per kilogram depending on the quality of the coffee and in line with the moving market prices.
Coffee brought by the farmers is subjected to quality checks including the moisture content. The coffee is then graded and sorted according to grain size because each bag of coffee must have a uniform size of beans.
The kingdom of Buganda directly sponsors the company to buy coffee through the kingdom’s budget.
The warehouse in Namanve is being hired from Nucafe as the kingdom plans to build its own warehouse when business gets rolling fully. The company has not yet started selling coffee outside the country but is selling locally to companies such as Nucafe, Olam, and Kyagalanyi.
Mwanyi Terimba also hires trucks from Nucafe to transport large quantities of coffee (10 tonnes or more) from farmers’ gardens.
The kingdom set up Mwanyi Terimba Limited in 2021, a company limited by shares to buy coffee from the farmers and to find a market for it externally. The company was also started to add value to coffee through processing it. This idea was hatched 5 years ago when the kingdom rolled out the Emwanyi Terimba initiative with a goal of promoting coffee growing in the kingdom and later on set up a company to buy the coffee from the farmers, completing the value chain of coffee as spearheaded by BUCADEF.
In 2016, Katikkiro Charles Peter Mayiga under the Kingdom of Buganda inaugurated a campaign dubbed “Emwanyi Terimba”. Mayiga engaged the Uganda Coffee Development Authority (UCDA) and formed a partnership to boost coffee growth in Buganda region.
The UCDA was to provide seedlings and partner with the kingdom’s Buganda Cultural and Development Foundation (BUCADEF) to provide technical knowledge on the new development while the kingdom was to ensure people embrace growing coffee again.
Katikkiro Mayiga revealed that people have embraced the campaign, and coffee growing has increased by 35%. He also revealed that Buganda region contributed 30% of the coffee exported from Uganda.
The company is to expand its operations to not only buy coffee from the 18 counties of Buganda but to also buy from the whole country.
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