Morocco’s OCP Foundation, APNI Join Forces to Boost Uganda’s Coffee Production

Rabat – The African Plant Nutrition Institute (APNI), affiliated with Morocco’s science innovation hub Mohammed VI Polytechnic University (UM6P) and the OCP Foundation, have launched an initiative to support green-financed agronomy projects in Uganda.

Named “Green Carbon, Livelihoods and Resilience in Ugandan Smallholder Coffee Systems,” the initiative aims to leverage green carbon finance to improve agronomy for smallholders cultivating coffee grains in the East African country.

According to a statement from UM6P, the project involves a long list of stakeholders from the public and private sectors, including Uganda’s Makerere University College of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences (CAES), and Ankole Coffee Producers Co-operative Union Limited.

The list of stakeholders also includes the National Agricultural Research Organization in Uganda (NARO), UM6P, the international NGO Producers Direct, and the Environmental Conservation Trust of Uganda (Ecotrust).

Under the initiative, researchers and practitioners from the partner institutions met in Kampala and Mbarara, Uganda, between February 1 and 4, to deliberate on the project’s implementation and to share experiences on best practices.

Key objectives of the project include conducting farmer-led experimentation for improved coffee yield and quality, diversification of coffee systems, and researching the potential for additional carbon credits created through adequate soil management practices.

Carbon credit is a financing tool that sustainable project holders can use to finance future products. This means a holder of a sustainable project that reduces emissions can sell the carbon credit to other companies to help them reach their carbon reduction goals.

The goal of the project is to increase the incomes of farmers working with ACPCU. The workshop held in Uganda established a framework and identified ways of aligning the project with ACPCU objectives.

The participating institutions hope the project will improve the know-how of stakeholders along the coffee value chain, address challenges related to climate change, and improve the production for ACPCU farmers in Uganda through NARO. The project will also support graduate student research in the sector.

Commenting on the initiative, Bamuhangaine Nicodemus of ACPCU said: “The project comes at a time when coffee production is stressed with issues of climate change and its farmers are in strong need of adaptation strategies.”

According to Nicodemus, the project will support efforts to “avert the effects” of climate change on coffee production in Uganda. “It is also important because it focuses on diversifying incomes of farmers in a way that conserves the environment,” he explained

“Our project is designed to support farmers’ aspirations for their farms and to address the different shocks they often experience along the coffee value chain,” APNI’s Director General Kaushik Majumdar noted.

The project has significant potential to “improve productivity, the quality of products, and farmers’ revenue,” the APNI director elaborated, adding that “each partner brings their unique experience on board which creates a special degree of synergy.”

For his part, OCP Foundation’s International Portfolio Lead, Hassina Moukhariq, said: “This project will strengthen collaboration among farmers leading to improved markets and better agricultural practices.”

The project will also “accelerate the diversification of opportunities to strengthen the coffee system, and new agriculture systems that will increase revenues of the farmers resulting in improved livelihoods,” Moukhariq noted. He concluded that the project will help Uganda “become an inspiring model for many other countries.”

Ngonidzashe Chirinda, Professor of Sustainable Tropical Agriculture at UM6P, said: “Our work will help generate data to inform decision-making and partnerships across the coffee value chain. It will also build a critical mass of people with better understanding of how best we can innovate to increase income for farmers.”