By: Sefu Sabila
Black gold as famously known, coffee farming was indespansable in the contribution to growth of the country’s economic, which is agricultural based. Although, for decades, the coffee sector has been dwindling and a decline in production recorded.
In between 1960s to late1980s, coffee farming was a luxurious source of income and cash crop for the country. Affirming of the great contribution of coffee in many development projects, Cooperatives and Micro Small Enterprises MSMEs Simon Chelugui while speaking in Cooperatives meeting in December said, that proceeds from the coffee, led to realization of many projects in the country.
The Fall of the Coffee Sector
“Between 1960s and mid-1980s, the industry was booming and most of the impressive development prospects was realized in coffee growing counties due to proceeds from the cash crop before the export earnings plunged and started recording a decline since 1987/88 crop year when it attained 129, 637 metric tonnes, ”said Chelugui during a Cooperative leaders meeting.
The sector has been malled with a lot of challenges, Mrs. Barasa a retired teacher from Nabisawa Ward Saboti Constituency in Trans Nzoia County, ventured into small scale coffee farming in 2002. Born and raised by coffee parents, it was not a new thing for her, as she had prior knowledge about coffee farming.
Coffee according to her is a golden source of income, as payments are made through dollars. But the sector has been neglected and affected by many issues in the country, including cartels and middlemen, to fluctuation of prices in the recent years.
“I was raised through coffee farming, through the returns received. Coffee was known for many years as black gold. It is a very potential source of income. For a while we have been exploited by the cartels and brokers, this really affected the morale of farmers in production as the returns were less as compared to the input.” Mrs Barasa said.
“As compared to a farmer investing in maize production in one acre, to one producing coffee, the returns from coffee are high, as compared to the maize. And interestingly, we were paid through dollars. We all know the value of dollar. It is a potential sector that needs to be watched. However, this doesn’t mean we neglect venturing into other sectors of production.” Mrs. Barasa further explained.
Apart from the fluctuation of prices and Middlemen who were reaping more than the farmers as acknowledged by Mrs. Barasa, other challenges that the sector faced leading to its downfall included;
- Poor leadership
- Lack of finances
- Competition from other beverages like tea
- Splitting of Coffee Cooperative societies into small units resulting to coffee farmers moving into other sectors.
However, in June 2023, the enthusiasm and optimism by the Kenya Kwanza government to restore the lost glory of coffee production began in Meru, during a two-day National Coffee Conference led by the Deputy President Rigathi Gachagua.
During the conference, the DP expressed the government’s commitment to revive the luxurious cash crop in small and larger producing coffee farmers across all 47 Counties. In the conference, key resolutions to reform the sector were made, in which the DP said was the government will work on ensuring the implementation of the reforms. He affirmed his efforts to ensure the Coffee Bill to be presented in the Senate, currently at the second reading stage, is passed and fully implemented by the sector.
“This conference is not a talk show. This sub-sector must be turned around urgently. The secretariat will put together the recommendations and ensure they come up with the necessary pieces of legislation, policies and administrative actions to be undertaken,” The DP said during the conference.
The Coffee Bill 2023 and Coffee Policy before the Senate, seeks to re-establish the Coffee Board of Kenya and The Coffee Research Institute as independent bodies. This among major Milestones made in reviving the sector.
Reforms Implemented in The Coffee Sector
Expressing his absolute confidence in the proposed reforms to revive the deteriorating sector, CS Chelugui says the Kenya Kwanza is committed to create wealth as deep into the rural are easy in the country, where agriculture is the major of livelihood.
“Creation of wealth in rural areas is one key targetted agenda of the Kenya Kwanza government, agriculture as one the economic drive sub-sector, through empowering farmers in access of affordable financing for coffee farmers, through Coffee Cherry Advance Revolving Fund.” CS Chelugui said.
Other recent reforms in the 2023 efforts to restore the lost glory of the sector include;
- Rise in price of a kilo of coffee from Kshs 20 to Kshs 80 per kilo
- Increasing production from 51,000 tonnes to 100,000 tonnes annually
- Provide affordable financing for farmers through Coffee Cherry Advance Revolving Fund
- Licensing coffee value chain participants
- Empower Pest Control Board to regulate pesticides to fight coffee pests
According to Christine Barasa, a small scale coffee farmer in Nabiswa ward Trans Nzoia County, the new reforms are a win to the coffee sector, if all reforms are actualized farmers will smile at the end of the day. Many farmers have been selling their coffee through the New Kenya Planters Cooperatives Union (KPCU), which is mandated to manage and offer the cherry funds to farmers
“While the CS was around in January, he urged farmers to go for the cherry funds. But this is given according to what the farmers have produced. It’s voluntarily, and I can appreciate that a majority of farmers have are going for the funds at the new KPCU, where they are getting the funds.” Mrs. Barasa said.
The funds according to the CS, is meant to help coffee farmers access credit and guarantee minimum returns, so as to boost the morale of farmers in producing more coffee.
The creation of the licensing coffee value chain participants that will involve county government, Capital Market’s Authority (CMA), Agriculture and Food Authority (AFA) established will help farmers, through their coffee broker companies to access and participate in commodity marketing and auction, as long as their broker is licensed.
According to Mrs. Barasa, the new reforms to revive the sector are a bitter sweet move. With the sector full of policies and procedures, a lot is set to be done including thorough education of farmers to understand the new policies.
“One thing about the new reforms is that farmers, we farmers are able to sell our coffee directly to the millers that are licensed. We are glad that we can do the negotiates of our produce, unlike previously where middlemen were the beneficiaries of our efforts. Honestly Kshs. 80 is a step to coffee farmers, it is way better than the previous amount of Kshs. 20.” Mrs. Barasa explained.
With the reforms geared towards stabilizing the sector in the country to meet global standards, Mrs. Barasa says the large scale producers will be disadvantage as the small scale farmers are making sure their coffee meet the global set standards before selling it, yielding higher sales.
As of December, according to Nairobi Coffee Exchange (NCE), CEO Lisper Ndungu, the average prices during the auction was USD 194.22 equivalent to Kshs 29,90.88 highest, as compared to previously USD 186.55 equated to Kshs 28,728.70, in just three months after the reopening in August by DP Rigathi Gachagua.
“For now exporters are getting a tough competition for those selling their coffee locally, let’s use the pricing at the NCE, those farmers from around from Mt. Kenya region can benefit from it instead if selling it abroad. It’s undoubtedly that local farmers will benefit from these reforms as compared to exporters.”Mrs.Barasa said.
However, the new reforms haven’t been shielded from shortcomings, according to Mrs. Barasa:
- Some policies have not been finalized thus
- Lack of clarity and confusion in a majority of farmers over the policies, the new change of policies are not clear to farmers
- Some farmers have not sold their coffee yet as their brokerage company have not been licenced.
- A Lot of documentation and policies to access the cherry funds.
With reforms welcomed by coffee farmers and stakeholders, Mrs. Barasa says the implementation process and the actualization in fully, as the sector is a potential economic sector in the country, she says Trans Nzoia County in areas such as Mt. Elgon and Cherangany have a great potential to produce coffee in large scale.
With optimism from the government that the new reforms will restore the status of coffee ‘black gold’, Mrs. Barasa says she is in bid to promote coffee production and consumption among Kenyans.
“It is very funny that some farmers do not know the taste of their produce, they all do for commercial purposes, but we are trying to promote not only production, but also consumption among residents of Kenya, Kenyans are not consumers of coffee in large, but we want to encourage that of consuming our local made products.” Mrs. Barasa stated.
Mt Kenya Times