Global Partners 2003
East Africa Travel Grant Report

James Pletcher, Denison University

Fax number: 1-740-587-6601

I spent three weeks in Uganda conducting research on coffee marketing and farmers’ organizations. Several important changes in the organization of coffee marketing have occurred over the past decade and half, including the collapse of the International Coffee Agreement, the termination of the state’s monopoly marketing powers, the collapse of the cooperative movement, and the full liberalization of the coffee market. As a result Ugandan coffee producers, who are overwhelmingly poor smallholders, have become more directly exposed to the demands and fluctuations of the international coffee market. In addition to these pressures, Ugandan producers also suffer from historically low coffee prices and the devastation caused by coffee wilt disease.

There are several efforts underway by foreign donors and local NGO’s to improve coffee farmers’ incomes. Many of these efforts depend upon better organization of farmers’ at the local level in order to: (1) improve the quality and consistency of coffee at the farm gate; (2) bulk coffee for easier access to the market; (3) bulk orders for inputs; (4) access improved plant varieties; (5) disseminate improved cultivation and handling practices; and, (6) establish a reputation among traders for high quality coffee. All of these efforts aim at improving coffee farmers’ competitive position in the market. All depend on forms of organization of farmers and the market which are, by and large, new to Ugandan farmers.

The new ways in which farmers need to become organized reveal the ways in which the coffee market structure has changed. These changes reflect the forces of globalization: farmers’ are more directly affected by international market forces than ever before; the state plays little to no role in managing market forces and their impact; power in the market structure has shifted from producers to coffee roasters; and old forms of farmers’ organization meant, at least in principle, to protect farmers and promote equity have been replaced by organizations designed to increase farmers’ responsiveness to market forces. By situating the current efforts at organizing farmers in its historical context we see the ways in which globalization affects smallholder, export commodity producers. In addition, by studying the differences between strategies of farmer organization used by various aid donors and NGO’s we reveal the different ideological currents that still flow beneath the surface of globalization.

I explored the issues of organizing and reorganizing farmers and the marketing of coffee in Uganda by conducting open-ended interviews with smallholder coffee producers, producer organizations, coffee outgrower estate owners, coffee exporters, and aid professionals. I visited both a small coffee outgrower scheme, and a smallholder coffee farmers’ group near Masaka. I also made contacts at Makerere University with scholars engaged in on-going agricultural market studies.

This summer’s research is a preliminary study to a larger project I intend to pursue in coming years focusing on Ugandan farmers’ responses to liberalization.

For additional information, please contact Matt Horstman at horstman@glca.org or 1-734-761-4833.