Cooperatives and Micro, Small, and Medium Enterprises Development CS Wycliffe Oparanya has urged farmers in Kakamega County to embrace coffee farming, as a means to transform their livelihoods.
Oparanya made the rallying call, when he led several lawmakers from the county in a coffee farming and agronomy sensitization forum at Kongoni in Likuyani Constituency.
He said most farmers in Central Kenya were economically empowered because they sold their farm produce through cooperative societies, hence Kakamega farmers should emulate them for better incomes from their farms.
The CS said his ministry and other stakeholders were undertaking a series of sensitization campaigns across the country in order to encourage more farmers to embrace coffee farming to uplift their livelihoods.
“Coffee is going to be a game changer to our people. I’m not saying you stop growing maize, but if you have an acre of land you can grow maize in one half and coffee in the other half because you will start earning from it after two years yet you need food”, he said.
“However, once you start earning from coffee, you can abandon maize farming because you will have enough money to buy and stock maize. We want more individuals to join coffee farming and those already growing coffee to reap more from their farms,” he advocated.
“Last year, Kenya sold only 51,000 tonnes of coffee while Uganda sold 700,000 tonnes yet several years ago Kenya was the leading coffee producer in Africa. Twenty years ago, we were in position one.
However, currently Ethiopia leads followed by Uganda. These countries have overtaken us because we didn’t have adequate knowledge on coffee farming and there were no proper cooperative societies to unite farmers,” Oparanya noted.
He said the government was undertaking reforms in the coffee sector and putting in place proper measures to contain the pitfalls and ensure farmers gained from their farms.
Likuyani Member of Parliament Innocent Mugabe said coffee growing would be a game changer to the region once farmers embrace it.
He disclosed that in their benchmarking tour in Meru, they realized that most wealthy individuals in the region were farmers.
“Coffee farming is going to be an economic revolution. Our livelihoods will improve. I will make sure we walk together as leaders with the farmers and cooperative societies in ensuring coffee farming takes off,” he said.
Mugabe urged the county government to ensure extension officers are at the grassroots to assist farmers who were ready to engage in coffee farming so that it could be a profitable venture to them.
Kakamega Woman Representative Elsie Muhanda and Lurambi lawmaker Titus Khamala said residents of Western region have for many years relied on sugarcane and maize farming despite the minimal returns.
They said with an alternative now available, the residents would be economically empowered with a farmer having the potential to earn Sh1million from an acre of a coffee farm.
Muhanda pledged to support each registered resident ready to engage in coffee farming across the county with ten free coffee seedlings.
Their Khwisero counterpart Christopher Aseka said coffee has the potential to transform the region’s economy which in turn would translate to great spiritual and political power.
Shinyalu Member of Parliament Fredrick Ikana and his Ikolomani counterpart Bernard Shinali urged those who attended the sensitization meeting to be coffee farming ambassadors and bring more farmers on board.
Ikana told CS Oparanya that Western leaders would support him in ensuring all Kenyans benefit from cooperative societies.
Shinali on his part regretted that his constituents were spending a lot of energy and time underground looking for elusive gold yet they could reap big from agriculture.
Tinderet MP Julius Melly said coffee farming was a profitable venture compared to sugarcane and tea farming.
Melly said he has engaged in farming, with coffee crop being the most profitable.
By Melechezedeck Ejakait
