Helping rural coffee farmers profit from the value chain for socio-economic transformation

National Union of Coffee Agribusinesses and Farm Enterprises (NUCAFE)

Helping rural coffee farmers profit from the value chain for socioeconomic transformation

Born in 2003, the Uganda National Union of Coffee Agribusinesses and Farm Enterprises (NUCAFE) is an umbrella organisation of coffee farmers, cutting across 23 districts, existing purely to promote coffee production, quality and export.

The organisation, over the years, has endeavoured to see that farmers and their communities get a fair deal from the coffee industry, by organising and empowering, especially smallholder farmers, to assume more roles and functions within the coffee value chain.

Significant achievements have been recorded over time, particularly the export of exceptionally high-quality coffee to high-end market off-takers, and pushing smallholder farmers into profitable nodes of the coffee value chain.

Coffee farming households have also increased to more than 1.7 million in 2020, with the organisation’s membership shooting to approximately 180,000 by the end of 2020.

Further still, it has advocated for improved gender relations among coffee farming households and this has greatly impacted on increased production quantities and quality coffee produced.

In this, according to the executive director, Joseph Nkandu, NUCAFE aims to see Coffee farmers profitably own their coffee along the coffee value chain for sustainable livelihoods, consumer satisfaction and societal transformation.

The progressive implementation of the Farmer Ownership Model has been another achievement of the organisation.

NUCAFE uses the farmer ownership model, based on the farmer groupassociation framework to support coffee farmers to organise themselves to assume as many roles as possible in the coffee value chain.

Farmers are at the epicentre of NUCAFE’s activities, and as such, particular attention has been placed on mindset change to orient farmers into aggressive, business-oriented individuals.

While technical advisory and training services continue to be provided, emphasis is also being placed on how to improve farmers’ incomes and enhance their livelihoods.

It should be remembered that one of the key priority areas is the enhancement of the capacity to generate earned income from the enhanced business activities of the organisation.

A digital farmer profiling initiative, which enables coffee to be traced back to its roots, was rolled out, and already, it is paying off for smallholder farmers.

Coffee produced under the scheme is fetching far higher prices, revealing the strong potential of geo-referencing as a marketing tool to guarantee authenticity and origin.

With support from Centre for Agricultural and Rural Cooperation (CTA), NUCAFE has since generated farmer profiles and maps of coffee farms as part of a targeted marketing strategy. This has seen an increase in coffee bulking and marketing at the association level.

To this end, NUCAFE has established a market-driven system of coffee farmer enterprises and organisations which are empowered to increase their household incomes through enhanced entrepreneurship and innovation.

Joseph Nkandu, Executive Director NUCAFE

Bumper harvest: Nkandu shows how they have supported farmers to increase coffee productivity . Drying coffee on raised platforms to maintain quality.

NUCAFE uses the farmer ownership model, based on the farmer groupassociation framework to support coffee farmers to organise themselves to assume as many roles as possible in the coffee value chain.