By Macharia Kamau

The government has been called upon to revive the moribund cotton sub-sector by setting up a billion-shilling credit facility through a revolving cotton development fund.

Orion EA Technical Director, Ronald Munyendo, hands over a consignment of Sh7 million Alphadime to Rosemary Mwaura of the Cotton Development Authority to be distributed to farmers countrywide. [PHOTO: Mbugua Kibera/STANDARD]

The fund should be administered by the private sector under the supervision of the recently constituted Cotton Development Authority, says Orion’s East Africa Marketing and Communications Director, Mr Naphtali Mureithi, in a proposal titled Limiting Factors in the Revival of The Cotton Sector in Kenya to the Finance and Agriculture ministries.

Mureithi said lack of credit for farming had hindered growth in the sector due to the large number of small scale producers of cotton that could not access finances through the various loan portfolios available locally yet the cost of inputs accounted for 57 per cent of crop production.

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Currently, the country produces a mere 20,000 bales of cotton compared to an annual domestic demand of 140,000 bales.

Only 50,000 hectares out of a potential 350,000 hectares (rain-fed) and 34,500 (irrigation) is under crop.

The country has potential to produce 386,000 bales of lint annually to satisfy both local demand and the Agoa market.

Cotton produces lint for textile industry and the byproducts are used in the manufacture of soap, detergents, animal feed, chemicals, fats and oils. According to Mureithi, the revival of cotton sector would hugely boost agricultural economy, reduce rural-urban migration among woman and youth and has the potential to generate activity in the small and micro enterprises.

Mureithi urged cotton ginners to establish an umbrella organisation that would centrally deal with farmers through the supply of seeds and agrochemicals such as Alphadime, a broad spectrum insecticide for controlling all major pests in cotton.