Liberalise pyrethrum sector to exploit new opportunities and boost farmers’ earnings

Kenya is the world’s largest producer and exporter of pyrethrum. Although Kenya produces the best quality pyrethrum in the world, the sector has been bedeviled by many problems that have contributed to the downfall of Kenya’s share in the world market from a high of 70 per cent to current less than 2 per cent.

In my childhood during the weekends and school holidays picking pyrethrum was my duty whereby my parents would pay me and my siblings 10 cents per kilo of pyrethrum to motivate us.
Mismanagement of Kenya’s once globally dominant pyrethrum industry has dealt a blow to the 250,000 or so farmers who used to grow the natural pesticide, many of whom have not been paid for several years, forcing them to uproot the crop. A drop in yields during the mid 1990s was due to high production costs, diseases and delayed payment by thePyrethrum Board of Kenya.