Kenya Coffee Producers Association (KCPA) has lauded the government for its renewed attention to address challenges facing the Coffee sub-sector.
The association chairman Peter Gikonyo expressed his gratitude to the current government for amicably resolving the woes that afflicted the industry over the years as dejected farmers desperately grappled with meagre returns from their sweat.
“We acknowledge President William Ruto for showing interest in coffee. We also extend our appreciation to the parliamentary coffee caucus and the County governments during the various engagements with the agriculture committee of national assembly and senate for their renewed vigour to tackle bottlenecks derailing growth of the once vibrant industry” he said .
Gikonyo who represents over 3000 small scale farmers in 31 Counties noted that the coffee farmer issues that they have endeavored to fight for, lobby for and sought audience for with the government and various stakeholders is now gradually getting the needed attention.
Speaking during a media briefing on the current issues in the coffee sector, the chairman said production of coffee in Kenya has generally been declining over the years from the highs of 130,000 metric tons to the current 48,000 metric tons.
This, he added has been occasioned by frustration and demotivation of coffee farmers with poor prices, inadequate knowledge and skills gap that was further aggravated by high cost of production.
“The current cost of production is Ksh 41per kg of cherry from the previous Ksh31 per kg and it also cuts across all farm inputs including certified seeds and fertilizer but now with the government initiative of the fertilizer subsidy it is a move in the right direction although the cost of chemicals and soil testing still remains a challenge”, Gikonyo said.
The push to have a new bill that seeks to address numerous challenges facing the coffee industry and has stalled for a while he noted will be of benefit to the sector saying farmers were willing to spearhead the initiative
A caucus of members of parliament drawn from coffee growing counties and National Assembly and Senate agriculture committees recently also announced their intentions to draft a new coffee bill that seeks to restore sanity and protect farmers.
“As an umbrella organization for small scale farmers, KCPA will mobilize stakeholders in the industry in a view to collect and collate views to develop a new bill”, he said
The chairman added that for a long-time farmer have been taken for a ride and all the reforms proposed in the past have equally not worked.
“While we acknowledge the Government’s efforts to introduce new law and policy for the coffee sector, the Government has got it wrong more than five times in coffee,” said Gikonyo.
He observed that for the last one-decade various reforms have been enacted but no meaningful results have been realized as the drivers of the changes pursue the initiatives without the input of the major producers.
“We have observed farmer disillusionment, disorganized industry governance and poor return for our produce. Many farmers are abandoning coffee farming. Some are taking up real estate while others are holding any new thoughts about what to do with their farms,” Gikonyo added.
He confirmed that the farmers’ organization will reach out to the parliament, ministry of agriculture and office of the president among other stakeholders in order to draft a comprehensive bill.
The chairman said that the former Coffee Board of Kenya (CBK) was reduced to a mere directorate after the enactment of the Crops Act 2013 denying the industry a powerful specific regulator.
The reduced regulatory role Gikonyo observed has allowed entry of new players who are now manipulating farmers and industry leading to price decline.
He added recommendations issued by the National Task Force established in 2016 by former President Uhuru Kenyatta failed to streamline the industry giving an example of both the Coffee general regulation 2019 and capital markets authority coffee exchange rules 2020 which have not been effective in streamlining coffee trading leading further to conflicting legal provisions.
For the last two years agriculture committees in both parliament houses -Senate and National Assembly engaged in supremacy wars over the management of the industry and each committee fast tracked a bill but eventually the Senate managed to approve its bill though it was later rejected by the national assembly.
“We take note, that no law is perfect and amendments are necessary as desired, however coffee trading is an ongoing business and care should be taken not to negatively affect trading as the farmers bear all risks.” Gikonyo said.
Tom Wanambisi a large scale farmer in the North Rift Region opined that low production of coffee was due to inadequate research support. To farmers
“There is a need by the Government to allocate resources to the tune of Ksh2 billion to the Coffee Research Institute (CRI) for Research and Extension services per year,” said Wanambisi.
KCPA said that they want to give farmers hope and believe that change is coming but urged them to als refocus on increasing production.
The future will therefore be focused engagement with the government through the Minister of Agriculture Hon Mithika Linturi, The Minister of Cooperatives and MSMEs Hon Simon Chelugui, Agricultural committees in the Senate and in the National Assembly, the parliamentary coffee caucus, Council of Governors and all stakeholders to achieve this change.
By Wangari Ndirangu
