Coffee farming has over the years been a cash crop for the central, parts of the west and the eastern regions of Uganda.
However, in the last few years, it has gained prominence in northern Uganda.
For example, two of the recent best farmers competition winners from the Acholi sub-region are coffee growers.
These are Bosco Otto and Janny Winfred Oyella, both in Gulu who won in 2023 and 2024, respectively.
Dr Tonny Kidega, a 2015 winner, known for keeping dairy cows, has also established a 40-acre coffee shamba.
To improve development of the coffee cash crop in the north, the Government has allocated sh60b in the 2025/2026 financial year, according to gender minister Betty Amongi.
Meeting Lango cultural leaders recently at Lango Cultural Centre in Lira city, Amongi says the project will be channelled through the Operation Wealth Creation programme, a government initiative aimed at raising household incomes and promoting wealth creation by transforming subsistence farmers into commercial ones.
The first phase will be the distribution of coffee seedlings to cultural leaders as role models and extend it to other farmers in the sub-regions of Lango, Acholi and West Nile according to the minister.
Amongi said President Yoweri Museveni has also directed her to notify all chief administrative officers, town clerks, commercial officers, resident district commissioners and resident city commissioners about the development.
He has urged them to continue to advocate for the Operation Wealth Creation progamme.
Amongi was delivering President Museveni’s message on the utilisation of sh60m government allocated to each cultural leader in the country.
She noted that cultural leaders, according to President Museveni, are the pillars and champions of wealth creation.
The prime minister of Tekwaro Lango, Dr Willy Okullo, welcomed the development, saying they were looking at kick-starting perennial crop growing, such as coffee and cocoa.
