The use of inorganic fertilizers and
improved farming practices by small-holder farmers can significantly
increase, and even double, coffee production in Uganda -the world’s
eleventh largest producer of the crop. This in turn would translate into
more income and better lives for the estimated one-quarter of the
population economically dependent on the crop in one way or another and a
much-needed boost to the country’s export revenue.
This is according
to a recent study conducted by researchers at the International
Institute of Tropical Agriculture (IITA) which found that farmers of Robusta coffee
in Southern Uganda who used Urea fertilizer to address the Nitrogen
deficiency in their fields, harvested twice as much coffee beans as
those that did not. This applied both when the coffee was grown alone
(monocropped) or mixed together with banana (intercropped), a common
practice in the country and which a previous study by IITA showed
increases incomes for farmers by as much as 50%.
The study also found that the rate of return for farmers’ investment
in fertilizer, using 2006 – 2007 prices, were as high as 545% for Robusta
grown together with banana and 305% when grown alone. However, yield
increases and profitability of applying nitrogen fertilizer were much
lower for Arabica coffee in the Mount Elgon area where the
yield increased by an average of 36 % and the rate of return was below
100%. Nutrient deficiency mapping in the region confirmed
that the soils lacked other essential minerals and not just nitrogen.
According to Dr Piet Van Asten, a systems agronomist with IITA Uganda,
the current average yield for both Arabica and Robusta coffee at one ton
per hectare per year is very low but farmers can easily double their
production by using fertilizer and improving current farming
practices. However, he says, to get the maximum return out of fertilizer
use, it is important to target the nutrient deficiency in a particular
area and the type of coffee instead of following blanket fertilizer
recommendation. “Arabica and Robusta coffee have different nutrient
requirements and nutrient deficiencies vary from place to place. Yet the
current fertilizer recommendations for the crop are not specific to the
coffee type nor region,” he says.
Godfrey Senabulya, 45, from Bukomansimbi district in Uganda, was one
of farmers involved in the study who is making much more money than
before from his coffee farming by using fertilizer and improved farming
practices. He started using fertilizers in 2006 after attending various
trainings conducted under Agricultural Productivity Enhancement Program
(APEP) funded by USAID in 2005 and 2006.
Senabulya says he is able to
comfortably feed and educate his seven children with the earnings from
coffee and has greatly improved his house and farm. He therefore advices
farmers that good farming practices and the use of fertilizers pays.
“Farmers should not be scared of using fertilizers. They should go for
training to learn how and which fertilizers to use and they will see the
difference,’ he says.
The low fertilizer usage was attributed to high fertilizer prices,
poor supply, and differences in farmer resource endowments. The study
showed that reduction in fertilizer prices and increase in coffee prices
would make fertilizer use more acceptable even in Arabica growing
region.
The research was funded by USAID through the Agricultural
Productivity Enhancement Program (APEP). The study findings are also in
line with a similar study led by van Asten and Lydia Wairegi, a PhD
student at Makerere University which showed that moderate use of mineral
fertilizers could double the production of East African highland
bananas in Uganda.
New Times
November 19, 2011
Fertilizer use, better farming methods can double Uganda’s coffee output: study
Categories coffee, fertilizer, IITA, research, Uganda