The United Nations Industrial Development Organization (UNIDO) and World Coffee Research (WCR), alongside industry partners, have announced a €850,000 co-investment to support Uganda’s coffee sector through improvements to seed systems and farmer livelihoods.

The three-year initiative, part of the Advancing Climate-Resilience and Transformation in African Coffee (ACT) programme, brings together UNIDO, WCR, the Lavazza Foundation, The JM Smucker Co and JDE Peet’s. The programme is funded in part by Italian Cooperation.

The project aims to expand access to high-quality planting material, improve productivity and strengthen resilience across Uganda’s coffee sector, which is the largest exporter in Africa. It also supports the country’s target of reaching 20 million bags of annual coffee production by 2030.

Ugandan coffee farmers face ongoing challenges from diseases such as coffee wilt disease in robusta and coffee leaf rust and coffee berry disease in arabica. According to previous research, adoption of disease-resistant varieties can increase smallholder profits by up to 250%.

The initiative will focus on developing seed system infrastructure, including the establishment of robusta mother gardens and nurseries across Northern, Central and Western Uganda. These are expected to produce up to 460,000 high-yielding, disease-resistant robusta trees annually, including drought-tolerant grafted varieties.

It will also include genotyping more than 5,000 plants to ensure genetic quality, alongside training programmes for technicians in propagation and quality assurance. Demonstration plots for robusta and arabica varieties will be set up to support farmer adoption.

The programme builds on a national roadmap for investment in coffee research and seed systems, led by Uganda’s National Agricultural Research Organisation and National Coffee Research Institute in collaboration with WCR.

Andrea De Marco, programme manager at UNIDO, said"Uganda's coffee sector holds extraordinary potential, and this initiative demonstrates precisely the kind of public-private partnership that can unlock it".

"Through the ACT Coffee Programme, UNIDO is working to ensure that the benefits of innovation in seed systems and climate-resilient varieties reach the smallholder farmers who need them most, building the foundation for a coffee sector that is productive, sustainable and equitable."

The partnership builds on WCR’s existing work in Uganda to improve access to quality planting material and strengthen long-term coffee supply.