DP Meets The Kenya-Colombia Technical Cooperation Team On Coffee Value Chain
Deputy President Rigathi Gachagua chairing the meeting yesterday.
The Consultative Meeting Resolve To Among Other Things Sign Memorandum of Understanding (MoUs) That Will Create A Framework For Interventions That The Government Is Deploying To Restore The Coffee Sub-Sector
By DPCS
Worth Noting:
- “On behalf of our President William Ruto and the government, we are grateful for your visit and sharing knowledge and insights with our farmers. We hope there will be improvement on yields, research and marketing,” he told the delegation, which has been in the country for five days.
- He continued, “on our cooperative movement, we would like it to embrace the model of the Colombia National Federation of Coffee Growers. We are amending the Cooperatives Act to deal with integrity issues and create transparent and accountable systems. A strong cooperative movement is good for the sector, farmers and the country.”
Kenya and Colombia are set to sign agreements to facilitate knowledge exchange on coffee farming and research, Deputy President Rigathi Gachagua said yesterday.
Acknowledging that Colombia is a global top producer of high quality and premium coffee flavours, the Deputy President said the two nations are preparing to strike a formula that will facilitate cooperation between Kenya’s Coffee Research Institute and its equivalent body in Colombia.
“The Memorandum of Understanding (MoUs) will create a framework for interventions that the government is deploying to restore the coffee sub-sector.
Coffee farmers in Colombia are our big brothers,” he said. The MoUs will be signed within the next three months.
The Deputy President spoke at the Official Residence, Karen, when he hosted visiting members of the Colombia National Federation of Coffee Growers and a team working on the Kenya-Colombia Technical Cooperation on Coffee Value Chain.
“On behalf of our President William Ruto and the government, we are grateful for your visit and sharing knowledge and insights with our farmers. We hope there will be improvement on yields, research and marketing,” he told the delegation, which has been in the country for five days.
He continued, “on our cooperative movement, we would like it to embrace the model of the Colombia National Federation of Coffee Growers. We are amending the Cooperatives Act to deal with integrity issues and create transparent and accountable systems. A strong cooperative movement is good for the sector, farmers and the country.”
Data from the State department of Cooperatives indicate that there are 28,000 registered cooperatives in Kenya and a membership surpassing 14 million.
The Memorandums, DP Gachagua said, will also strengthen the bonds between farmers of the two nations, boost marketing of the Kenyan produce at the international arena and help to shore up the bilateral relations.
The Deputy President said the partnership of the two nations is part of interventions rolled out by President Ruto-led administration to revive the coffee sub-sector and foster the rural economy, since coffee is a crop of smallholder farmers.
Other interventions include amendment of the laws governing the sector, distribution of subsidized fertilizer to farmers, enhancing the Coffee Cherry Fund by Sh6 billion, re-opening the Nairobi Coffee Exchange and upgrading of the coffee quality lab at AFA Coffee Directorate.
“Our Administration has a Bottom-up Economic Transformation Agenda (BETA), which empowers people at the bottom. Farmers are central to that model. Coffee is important to our foreign outreach and a major forex exchanger for our country. In the 1980s we were doing well. We want to restore the sub-sector. I visited Colombia last year to see what they are doing and we can embrace their farming practices,” said the Deputy President.
He added that the government plans to make the coffee sub-sector semi-autonomous and the Coffee Research Institute (CRI) is being re-energized so that the scientists and researchers can come up with great varieties of the crop.
Cabinet Secretary, Ministry of Cooperatives and Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (MSMEs) Development Simon Chelugui, Colombian Ambassador to Kenya Pedro Leon Cortes Ruiz, Chairperson of the National Assembly Committee on Agriculture and Livestock John Mutunga, New-KPCU chairman Daniel Chemno, Nairobi Coffee Exchange Acting CEO Risper Ndung’u and farmers’ representatives were also present at the meeting.
The Deputy President has been spearheading the reforms of the sector.
According to CS Chelugui, the MoUs will touch on collaboration on research which will involve fighting of coffee diseases, management of coffee farming process by CRI and the Colombia coffee growers federation.
“They (Colombians) have an institution that is similar to CRI, which is a facilitative body of the coffee farmers. It is not for profit but the intention is to support farmers to produce high volumes and earn high returns. They have a pricing system that is devoid of manipulation and price-fixing. We want to join the list of top coffee producers in the world,” said CS Chelugui.
He continued, “we will begin in earnest and we are requesting them to hold us and push us to be champions in Africa and the region in coffee farming. In less than three months, we will prepare and sign the MoUs. They can send their research scientist to be based at CRI Ruiru to support our researchers and technical team”.
Colombian Ambassador to Kenya Pedro Leon Cortes Ruiz said the two nations will collaborate for economic growth.
“Coffee is what we have offered the world for a long time. We are demonstrating we can develop as one. We have also been advancing and building a solid and strong framework working for the good of the two nations. We will continue to offer the best,” said the ambassador.
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