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Coffee Farming
TIPS ON ESTABLISHING A COFFEE GARDEN
The type of coffee grown in the Elgon region is Arabica coffee. Which is best suited in high altitude areas. Below are tips on how to ensure you establish a coffee garden.
- Spacing: The spacing is between 8 feet by 8 feet.
- Dig right size holes – 2 feet long x 2 feet wide x 2 feet deep.
- While digging holes: heap the top soil on one side and bottom soil on another side.
- Add manure to the dug-out soil and return it into the holes.
- Mark the center of the holes and leave them for 2 – 3 months before planting.
- Obtain coffee plantlets from Certified Coffee Nurseries.
- During the planting season, plant very early in the morning or late in the evening.
8. Remove the polythene pot cover before planting the seedling/cutting.
9. Provide temporary shade to the newly planted coffee plantlets and water in case of water stress. Water conservation channels/bands are important in coffee.
10. When the coffee plantlets have attained a height of about 11/2 foot or 6 – 9 months after planting, they should be trained (bent in an east to west direction i.e., sunrise to sunset direction) to initiate multiple branches from which the lowest and most healthy 2 are selected and maintained together with the original plantlet. This ensures higher yield and profitability per tree.
11. The coffee garden should always be mulched and “weed free”
12. Beans and bananas are good intercrops for coffee.
13. Continuous de-suckering of the coffee plants should be practiced in order to prevent development of a micro climate that encourages pests such as Black Coffee Twig Borer (BCTB).
14. At maturity, harvest only the red-ripe cherry and dry it immediately on tarpaulins, raised platforms or cemented floor to preserve its good quality.
For further guidance, please contact:
Your nearest Extension Worker
Uganda Coffee Development Authority’s Regional Office
coffee
Coffee Processing
Coffee processing refers to the method of converting the raw fruit (cherries) of the coffee plant into the dried coffee beans that are eventually roasted and brewed.
The process involves several stages to remove the outer layers of the coffee cherry and bring out the desired flavors in the beans.
Primary Processing
The ripe coffee fruits (cherries) go through a number of operations aimed at extracting the beans from their covering of pulp, mucilage, parchment and film to improve their appearance. The resulting clean coffee (FAQ) can then be roasted and ground to obtain the coffee powder which is fit for human consumption. The main techniques used to obtain the clean coffee;
Wet processing in which the fruit is processed in three stages:
Removal of pulp and mucilage followed by washing to obtain clean wet parchment
• Drying of the parchment coffee
• Removal of the parchment and film through hulling followed by grading to obtain the desired grades (sizes) of the clean coffee.
THE BCU factory is ultra-modern, fitted with col-or sorter machines and gravity table. The mill has a compacity to produce 40 tons in 8 hours.
Over 80 % of our total annual coffee production is exported as green beans. Secondary processing also known as export grading transforms the clean coffee into the various coffee grades that meet the international standards. The process involves cleaning the FAQ, drying the coffee if wet (M.C over 13 %) followed by size grading using perforated screens of the desired size. The sorted beans are the gravimetrically sorted to have uniform specific density before bagging off and loaded into containers for transportation to the ports.
1. Pre-cleaning and de-stoning
2. Size grading
3. Gravimetric sorting
4. Bag-off
5. Tertiary Processing (Green coffee to a cup)
6. Process of powder
1. Wet processing in which the fruit is processed in three stages:
• Removal of pulp and mucilage followed by washing to obtain clean wet parchment
• Drying of the parchment coffee
• Removal of the parchment and film through hulling followed by grading to obtain the desired grades (sizes) of the clean coffee.
1. Cherry separation
2. Pulping
3. Washing
4. Drying
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What Is Coffee?
Everyone recognizes a roasted coffee bean, but you might not recognize an actual coffee plant.
Coffee trees are pruned short to conserve their energy and aid in harvesting, but can grow to more than 30 feet (9 meters) high. Each tree is covered with green, waxy leaves growing opposite each other in pairs. Coffee cherries grow along the branches. Because it grows in a continuous cycle, it’s not unusual to see flowers, green fruit and ripe fruit simultaneously on a single tree.
It takes nearly a year for a cherry to mature after first flowering, and about 5 years of growth to reach full fruit production. While coffee plants can live up to 100 years, they are generally the most productive between the ages of 7 and 20. Proper care can maintain and even increase their output over the years, depending on the variety. The average coffee tree produces 10 pounds of coffee cherry per year, or 2 pounds of green beans.
The trees grow best in rich soil, with mild temperatures, frequent rain and shaded sun.
