Ugandan farmers to receive two million Robusta Coffee Wilt Disease (CWD) resistant plantlets this year.

The boost to Uganda’s coffee production industry was announced by Dr. Africano Kangire, the National Crops Resources Research Institute (NaCRRI), head of Coffee Research Centre (COREC).

“We have been able to achieve this coffee plantlet multiplication by using somatic embryogenesis, which uses cells from a coffee leaf plant. Each leaf produces up to 20,000 plantlets,” Dr. Kangire commented.

Coffee trees have more than 100 leaves, meaning that around two million plantlets could be produced in a single year, as opposed to more conventional methods that would produce around 60.

Kangire hopes that these plantlets will help to meet the target of 200 million others needed to replace those that were destroyed by CWD in 2002.

Ugandan coffee farmers have received training in the production of plantlets using the somatic embryogenesis method, and are now carrying out the process with seven CWD resistant varieties.
CWD first hit Ugandan coffee plants in 1993, after crossing over the border from the Democratic Republic of Congo.

“By 2002, the disease had destroyed about 50% of the Robusta coffee in the countryside. We had to carry out research and develop seven Kituza CWD resistant varieties,” added Dr. Kangire.

The Ugandan Government is dragging its heels on investment in coffee research despite many feeling the need to develop drought resistant coffee varieties as fears over global warming continue to mount.

Last year, coffee production in the country fell by around 10% due to prolonged drought caused by severe weather conditions. It is hoped that the resistant varieties will help in redressing the balance.