By Shemei Ndawula
For the past three years the European Union has been drafting and polishing a set of legislations that will potentially have great impact on the lives of many Ugandan coffee farmers once they come into effect at the end of this year. As a country, we have relied on Coffee as our major export cash crop for decades. Right from colonial times when Uganda boosted of a surplus budget most of the national revenue came from agricultural exports of coffee and Cotton. At the moment we export close to 1 billion USD worth of coffee annually mainly to the European markets (Italy alone takes up to 33% of coffee exports).
The legislation, a result of climate change campaigns seeks to implement a stringent import cap on goods like coffee, cloves, rubber from non European countries if their importers can not prove that the land on which they are grown is a product of deforestation. This is definitely a good idea because the rate of deforestation across the globe is worrying. Uganda; thrust to the forefront of the war on climate change because of our location along the equator needs to take more intentional steps towards mitigating widespread deforestation. We are already experiencing record breaking levels of water rising in Lake Victoria as well as flash floods and mud slides in different parts of the country.
However, what this legislation misses out on is that most coffee growers in Uganda are smallholder farmers who are already struggling to meet the quality controls in regards to bean quality and organic farming practices. It will be impossible for the same farmers to put in place the necessary tracking mechanisms to prove that their farmlands comply with the legislation and convince the European Union that they meet the required standards. Needless to say that many of the smallholder farmers are either semiliterate or illiterate and will require a significant amount of time for training and adjustment of their farming practices to fully comprehend the purpose and subject of the legislation let alone implement them.
In fact, many of the prominent coffee producing regions like the Bugisu sub-region and the Kasese region are surrounded by forest reserves with the farmlands coexisting within the trees. In many ways this is a standard farming practice because the root system of the trees holds the soil so that the fertilizers used in the coffee are not swept away by the rain and the fallen foliage from the trees acts as mulch. My family has had a similar agricultural scheme for decades at our farm in Kasangati(in the outskirts of Kampala) where the coffee is grown alongside timber trees.
It is imperative for the European governments to understand that the most likely scenario that will play out when the legislation comes into effect may not be increased compliance in Africa but rather most multinational coffee exporters will shift their focus to more developed countries like Brazil which can comply with the necessary red tape. This can spur a domino effect with coffee farmers when deprived of the coffee market resorting to cutting down the trees on the farms to cover their daily needs.
As a profession relying heavily on nature, Ugandan and African farmers have got all the reasons to lead the war on climate change. Our agricultural systems are heavily dependent on weather patterns and many farmers are one or two bad weather seasons from a crisis.
Additionally, setting up these traceability mechanisms will also come with unprecedented compliance costs to provide verifiable proof that the coffee supplied to the European market comes from none deforested areas. This will involve adopting traceability systems, certification processes and quite possibly new farming methods.
The European Union may be better served by simply equipping the farmers with the necessary skills and technology to implement sustainable farming practices. European research has made leaps and bounds in sustainable high impact farming and technological sharing between the two countries would be a huge boon for the coffee sector.
This has been done before by the Chinese in Uganda who set up a large rice growing scheme in Lukaya along the Lwera stretch to set a practical farming standard for Ugandan rice growers to emulate. In the end, Ugandan farmers earn better from their agricultural investment while the Chinese import better quality grain for their population.
The EU’s legislation banning coffee imports from deforested areas is a commendable step towards global environmental sustainability. It unfortunately however; presents significant challenges for Ugandan coffee farmers who must navigate increased compliance costs, potential loss of market access, and broader socio-economic implications. To address these concerns, the European Union countries need to implement a multifaceted approach involving international aid, government support, and market diversification strategies. If together we can foster sustainable agricultural practices and provide the necessary support, it is possible to mitigate the adverse impacts on Ugandan farmers and ensure a more resilient and sustainable future for the coffee industry.
Shemei Ndawula is a senior research fellow at the Development Watch Centre.
