Parliament shall review and return the National Coffee Bill to President Yoweri Kaguta Museveni after he declined to assent to it and asked parliament to evaluation several provisions in the proposed law.
On Tuesday, the Speaker of Parliament Rebecca Kadaga noted that the President wants the house to review clause 14 of the Bill regarding the appointment of the Board of Uganda Coffee Development Authority, the appointment of the board chairperson and director of the authority.
Parliament has also been tasked to review clause 26 which is on the registration of coffee farmers and the issuance of a certificate of registration for coffee nursery operators.
Now, Speaker Kadaga has directed Hon Vincent Ssempijja the Minister of Agriculture to re-table the Bill for review by the relevant committee.
In August 2020, Parliament passed the National Coffee Bill to provide for the registration of coffee farmers by the Uganda Coffee Development Authority (UCDA) in order to entail capturing details of the size of land, number of coffee trees, particulars of a farmer, coffee buyers, sellers and nursery bed operators.
The Bill also repeals the Uganda Coffee Development Authority Act, 1991 and only covered off-farm activities of marketing and processing, leaving on-farm activities like planting materials, nurseries, harvesting and post-harvesting handling outside the scope of the law.
Registration of farmers was proposed to be free in the Bill and each registered farmer would be given an identification number.
President Museveni rejected a clause to de-register coffee farmers who fail to meet standards set by Government and a two-year jail term for a farmer who fails to take good care of their coffee plantation.
