State should do more for cotton farmers

Cotton farming was once a lifeline for thousands of families in Kenya, but the ailing sector is today on its death-bed. There have been several attempts to resuscitate it but to no avail, yet what hurts the sector most is not difficult to cure. Low prices and expensive pesticides have made cotton farming prohibitive. More than half of cotton ginneries are silent, and the few operating do so half-heartedly. Memories of the good old days and the lack of alternative economic activity are perhaps the only motivating factors for the few remaining farmers. Yet cotton farming has great potential. It can re-awaken the country’s manufacturing sector and put thousands of young people in gainful employment.

Most farmers will tell you that things started going bad in the early 1990s when the State stopped baby-sitting state corporations, through what came to be known as structural adjustment programmes.

Farmers were left on their own. Majority cannot afford extension services and pesticides, critical for quality cotton harvest. It is in this regard that the government should stop paying lip service to the industry’s revival. Cotton farmers should be financed, so as to compete with others abroad, such as India’s, who are heavily subsidised. The government should also expedite introduction of BT Cotton seed that is not prone to attack by pests.

Ultimately, we must address the issue of second-hand clothes that have flooded our market. It is either we revamp our own textile industry, by manufacturing our own garments from own cotton, or we continue importing mitumba and end up employing only a few people.