Progress of coffee Planting Campaign in Tombura-Yambio Diocese

During the celebrations of his Priestly Silver Jubilee Celebrations in May 2019, the Catholic Bishop of Tombura-Yambio, Rt. Rev. Edwardo Hiiboro Kussala launched a coffee plantation initiative with an aim to conserve the environment as well as work together with the people of his diocese to mitigate poverty.

In August of the same year, Bishop Hiiboro on yet another related mission, this time around, initiated a tree planting mission in a bid to increase food production that would eventually lead to improvement of the economic situations of his diocesans as well as improve the environment.

Situated in the Western Equatoria region of South Sudan which has a well share of Tropical Rainforest, the diocese is ideal for agricultural activities especially coffee plantation which according to Bishop Hiiboro is the world's most traded tropical agricultural commodity. This was one of the Bishop’s motivation to venture into agriculture and encourage his diocesan to do so.

It is slightly over a year now since the coffee plantation initiative kicked off, an elated bishop Hiiboro expressed that so far the progress of the project is quite encouraging.

“So many of my priests and the faithful have shown great interest in this project. Many parishes have opened farms for coffee plantation as well as useful varieties of cash crops. Also the protection of environment is one of the most added advantages,” Bishop Hiiboro explained in an interview with Anisa Radio.

 Priests from the 35 parishes of Tombura Yambio Diocese, have started collecting coffee seedlings from curia as per the directives given by Bishop Hiiboro. So far some priests have managed to collect the seedlings and have already planted them while some are yet to do so owing to some challenges, among them lack of transportation, especially for parishes situated far away. Also poor road network coupled with insecurity are among key hindrances to having seedlings distributed to parishes and institutions of the diocese.

According to the Bishop’s directives, each parish was to be given 200 seedlings while diocesan institutions were to receive 100 seedlings each. The process of growing the seedlings, which began in July 2019 however, has not been easy according to the agriculturist in charge of Curia farms Mr. Mark Tibenderana. This was due to some challenges, which included lack of water, a result of short rains and also lack of man power just to mention a few.

Mr. Tibenderana further mentioned that the seedlings well grown and any further delays in transplanting may result to the coffee trees performing poorly.

Coffee plants usually takes three to four years to mature, this means that the Catholic Diocese of Tombura-Yambio coffee in all the 35 parishes will be ready by 2023 to 2024. According to Bishop Hiiboro Coffee growing helps a lot to reduce soil erosion, maintain a degree of biodiversity, it is also a very useful carbon sink and provides good habitat for birds. In terms of poverty eradication coffee is a cash crop hence dedicated farmers will not have money problems as long there is ready market.

By Sylviah Naipanoi