Cash crops not on deathbed, Kenya’s agricultural authority boss says

Newly appointed Agriculture, Fisheries and Food Authority(AFFA) Director General Alfred Busolo (left).

NAIROBI: Despite the suffering of thousands of farmers, the man at the helm of a State corporation tasked with promotion and development of agriculture believes that cash crops are not on their deathbed.

Acting Director General of the Agriculture, Fisheries and Food Authority (AFFA) Alfred Busolo, said it is not all gloom in the sector as cash-crop farming is witnessing growth and development as compared to some years back.

"The farming of major cash crops like coffee, tea, sugarcane, sisal, cotton and coconuts among others has improved in recent years. More farmers are cultivating these crops because of the good prices they fetch on the market. The whole sector has rebounded," he said.

According to Mr Busolo (pictured), the growth in the different sub-sectors of cash crop farming can be attributed to specific and deliberate efforts by AFFA in collaboration with other players like county governments to revive cultivation of cash crop.

"Following the devolution of agriculture, we have worked with the counties to improve farming. We have given farmers seedlings of crops like coffee, tea, pyrethrum, coconut and others at subsidised prices in the regions they are grown," said Busolo.

"Through a programme dubbed the 'Integrated Coffee Produce Project', which targets farmers in 21 coffee-growing counties, we have distributed planting materials to farmers at subsidised prices. In some of these counties, the farmers have received the seedlings free of charge," added Busolo, noting they have established nurseries for the crop in the regions to enable the farmers get seedlings with elative ease.

 He further said coffee is the perfect example of a sector which has been revived. "Coffee production had dropped from 170,000 tonnes in the 1980s to an average of 40,000 tonnes about five years ago. But as we speak, this year we are producing between 54,000-55,000 tonnes," said Busolo, adding: "This just shows that the production of the crop is on an upward trend. Prices have also been good on the market," said Busolo.

He also gave another example of pyrethrum farming, which he said has posted tremendous growth. He added that in West Pokot where pyrethrum does well, they have distributed free planting materials worth Sh5 million.

 CHEAPER IMPORTS

Busolo said the parastatal's efforts to work with farmers in value addition have borne fruits, pointing out that this is evident by the variety of locally manufactured cash-crop product brands in shops and on upermarkets' shelves.

AFFA acknowledged that there are challenges in the cash crop sector, particularly the influx of cheap imports from neighbouring countries. But Busolo says they have trained local farmers to ensure they remain competitive.

"Challenges of disease, low prices and lack of seeds have been there. But the Government has handled this well. Changes have been there. Maybe the changes have been too slow but looking at individual crop production, certainly things are better for our farmers," he said.