Song and dance rented the air at Thiriku Coffee Growers Cooperative Society after it released the highest payment rates ever by the society to farmers.
The farmers will be paid Sh. 130 per kilo of coffee delivered, a rate they have never enjoyed before, announced the Society Chairman Cyrus Waiganjo.
Speaking to KNA, Waiganjo said farmers will pocket Sh 110 while Sh 20 will be used to pay society loans as well as running the society’s day to day activities.
Waiganjo made the announcement during the society’s Special General Meeting at the society’s headquarters in Tetu, Nyeri County.
He said the society also recorded an improvement in production to 304,887 kilos of cherry this year compared to last year’s 174 000 kilos.
Last year, the society released a payment rate of Sh 100 per kilo which the chairman said must have motivated the farmers to step-up their effort.
“This increase in production is definitely related to the payment that was done last year of Sh 100 per kilo. There is an improvement to Sh 110 per kilo. So with this payment, we expect even greater improvement,” he said.
He expressed hope that farmers will meet this season’s target of harvesting over 500,000 kilos.
Already the society is educating farmers on proper coffee management, and providing them with subsidized farm inputs to increase production.
“We sell our coffee directly to a company in the Netherlands called Trabocca who have been engaging with us because they noted right from the beginning that even with low production, there was a lot of transparency in our operations,” he said.
The society also recorded the highest coffee quality ever, recording class three positive after producing AA, AB and TB grades which stood at 93 per cent.
The society has 2500 members, 1900 of whom are active.
“This is a figure which had gradually gone down due to poor prices of coffee but now our farmers have started coming back because of the improved earnings,” the society manager Peter Ndirangu said.
The average production of coffee per bush was 0.9 kilos but has now improved to 3 kilos per bush and is targeting to hit 10 kilos per tree in three years, he said.
John Gitonga a farmer termed the rate as encouraging and urged fellow farmers to improve on production so that they can get more harvest translating to improved earnings.
Muthoni Kagiri and Gathoni Ndung’u, also farmers said that they were overjoyed for the high earnings.
By Beth Ndirangu
