Predictions demonstrate that climate change is likely to stifle the coffee development program in Uganda at three levels: (i) by reducing survival rate of coffee seedlings to expand coffee acreage; (ii) exacerbate productivity challenges in an inherently constrained rain-fed low input coffee production system; and (iii) contributing to reduction in quality of coffee beans (specifically bean size) produced leading to losses in absolute value in export earnings. This is likely to slow down the low middle-income status by 2020 target of exporting 20 million (60 Kg bags) annually. The farmers’ ownership model piloted by the National Union of Coffee Agribusinesses and Farm Enterprises (NUCAFE), where a smallholder farmer is guaranteed premium prices for value addition, offers a strategy to sustainably invest in climate smart agriculture 1 (involving use of irrigation and fertilizer)1in coffee production.