Dubai – Qahwa World
A coalition of international organizations and leading coffee companies has announced a major investment aimed at reinforcing Uganda’s coffee seed systems and improving farmer livelihoods. The initiative, led by United Nations Industrial Development Organization (UNIDO) and World Coffee Research (WCR), brings together industry partners including JDE Peet’s, The J.M. Smucker Co., and the Lavazza Foundation.
The partners have committed €850,000 to a three-year program designed to strengthen supply chain resilience in Uganda, Africa’s largest coffee exporter. The project operates under the Advancing Climate-Resilience and Transformation in African Coffee Programme, implemented by UNIDO with support from Italian development cooperation.
The initiative focuses on expanding access to high-quality, disease-resistant planting materials, a critical factor in improving productivity across Uganda’s coffee sector. Farmers in the country continue to face significant challenges from diseases such as coffee wilt disease in robusta, as well as coffee leaf rust and coffee berry disease affecting arabica varieties. Research indicates that adopting resistant coffee varieties can increase smallholder farmer profits by as much as 250 percent.
Central to the program is the establishment of new seed system infrastructure. This includes the development of robusta mother gardens and nurseries across northern, central, and western Uganda. These facilities are expected to produce up to 460,000 high-yielding, disease-resistant coffee trees annually, contributing to the country’s target of reaching 20 million bags of coffee production by 2030.
Ensuring the genetic quality of planting material is another key component. More than 5,000 robusta plants will undergo genotyping to guarantee consistency and performance. The program also prioritizes capacity building, working closely with national institutions such as Uganda’s Ministry of Agriculture and the National Coffee Research Institute to train technicians in advanced propagation methods and quality assurance practices. International training opportunities, including collaboration with leading research centers, are also planned.
To encourage adoption among farmers, demonstration plots will be established to showcase the performance of improved robusta lines and advanced arabica hybrids under local conditions.
The initiative builds on a broader roadmap for coffee research and development in Uganda, developed by national research bodies in collaboration with WCR. It also aligns with growing international support for increased public-sector investment in agricultural innovation, including commitments highlighted during the G7 Summit.
Industry leaders say the partnership reflects a shared commitment to securing the future of coffee production through collective action. By combining scientific research, public-sector support, and private-sector investment, the program aims to create a more resilient, productive, and sustainable coffee value chain in Uganda.
