Governors seek ways to revive coffee

[Photo: Courtesy]

Kenya’s coffee production has dropped from 130 million tonnes annually to 40 million with projections that the output could drop lower.

High cost of production and labour coupled with cartels that have continued to oppress farmers have played a major role in the decline.

The Council of Governors (CoG) has blamed a weak regulatory framework for the crisis in the sector, whose potential is 300 million tonnes annually.

This emerged at the end of a two-day retreat for governors from coffee growing counties, Government officers and members of the Coffee Task force.

Addressing the Press at the end of the retreat in Naivasha, chairman of the CoG Agriculture committee Stephen Sang said they had agreed to urgently undertake legal reforms in the sector.

The Nandi governor termed the crop crucial to the economy and hence the need to revive the sector that employs thousands of Kenyans.

“We have agreed on various interventions that will be carried out by the national and county governments as we are currently doing badly in terms of production,” he said.

Mr Sang identified one of the solutions as a three-year subsidy programme that would see the farmers get inputs at affordable prices.