Farmers oppose bid to regulate sector

By KARANJA NJOROGE

Farmers have opposed proposed amendments to the Pyrethrum Act 2013 seeking to re-establish the national board as the regulator of players in a liberalised market.

The re-enactment of the law will vest the regulatory roles of the industry in the Pyrethrum Board of Kenya (PBK) whereas the commercial functions will be vested in the proposed Pyrethrum Growers Processing Company Limited.

The proposed changes seek to reorganise the industry by separating the regulatory and commercial functions currently carried out by the Pyrethrum Regulatory Authority (PRA).

Speaking in Nakuru, pyrethrum farmers, however, opposed plans to amend the Pyrethrum Act 2013, which only came into effect in January this year.

The proposed amendments are contained in a Cabinet memorandum prepared by the Ministry of Agriculture, Livestock and Fisheries.

The document states that the PBK is the only authority in the market empowered to provide letters of access to formulators, to facilitate registration of their pyrethrum-based insecticides.

The board has over 1,000 patents of pyrethrum product formulae and has also registered six end use products for the public health, crop protection and animal industry sub sectors.

“The Pyrethrum Regulatory Authority cannot replace the Pyrethrum Board of Kenya on the registration certificates of over 1,000 pyrethrum-based insecticides,” the document from Agriculture Cabinet Secretary Felix Koskei adds.

The Act established the PRA to develop, regulate and promote the pyrethrum sector through registering, licensing and coordinating players in the chain.

Farmers led by the Nakuru County Pyrethrum Growers Cooperative Society chairman Samuel Kihiu, said the proposed amendments would reverse moves to liberalise the troubled sector as envisaged in the Act.

“Allowing PBK to operate pyrethrum warehousing units and to facilitate marketing of Kenya pyrethrum whether grown locally or imported is not liberalising the sector,” Kihiu said.