A chat with Green Earth Trust CEO Stephen Lumumba

Green Earth Trust CEO Stephen Lumumba

Green Earth Trust is a countrywide organisation of farmers, co-operatives, manufacturers and importers of pesticides that promotes and encourages the production of safe food through climate-smart agriculture, aided by natural, organic pesticides.

With over 19,300 members, the firm is at the forefront of the revival of Kenya’s once-booming pyrethrum industry.

One of its members, Orion EPZ Ltd can process pyrethrum products destined for the US market. Green Earth Chief Executive Stephen Lumumba spoke to Financial Standard on a range of issues.

How is Green Earth Trust working with farmers, including at the village level to enhance food safety?

Our national programmes are geared towards capacity development and deployment to enhance farm-level responses to climate change through mitigation and adaptation.

What are some of your programmes?

They include the revival of the pyrethrum industry, overseas market access and market share protection, soil remediation to restore optimum acidity levels, post-registration surveillance of pest control products and petitioning the government to ban endocrine disruptors

What are some of the deals that you have struck that are key to Kenyan farmers and produce exporters?

Our member, Orion EPZ Ltd, became the first and only private entity in Kenya to be granted both a company number and an establishment number by the US Environmental Protection Agency.   This means that Orion EPZ Ltd is the only authority to process pyrethrum products destined for the US market. Pyrethrin is in high demand internationally for making natural, organic pest control products that have greater efficacy and safety profile than synthetics. 

What about the Pyrethrum Bill 2011?

In 2013, President Mwai Kibaki signed into law a piece of legislation called the Pyrethrum Bill, 2011 to liberalise the sector, a major incentive to pyrethrum farming and marketing that led to renewed interest in the cultivation of this high-value crop. The new legislation cancelled the monopoly of the Pyrethrum Board of Kenya, paving the way for other organised entrants. Green Earth Trust has made good progress in accessing overseas markets for Kenya’s high-value pyrethrins and is working with regulatory agencies in the pyrethrum growing counties to revive the crop.

Kenya was once a top producer of pyrethrum and GreenEarth is at the forefront of the sector’s revival. Expound more?

Kenya was for many years a leading supplier of pyrethrum in the international market – at one time totalling over 70 per cent of global supply. Our central marketing agent at the time was the Pyrethrum Board of Kenya, which was also the entity that registered Kenya’s pyrethrum extracts abroad on behalf of stakeholders. At the peak of the sector’s performance, some 200,000 families in Kenya engaged in the cultivation of pyrethrum flowers and an estimated for million people benefited indirectly. For Kenya, pyrethrum was an important foreign exchange earner and a significant contributor to the economy.

Briefly talk about ‘post-product registration surveillance’

The norm at present is that once a product has been registered by the Pest Control Products Board of Kenya, it cannot be withdrawn.   However, Green Earth Trust we advise our members accordingly on which products to use and which to discontinue. We also provide linkages between manufacturers and consumers with a view to facilitating harmonisation of the interests involved.

How do you promote food security?

In helping our members produce safe food, we are continuously seeking resources to upscale our capacity to provide post product registration surveillance and product stewardship on behalf of our members.  We pay greater attention to the consistency of efficacy and keeping track of new adverse information relating to registered products sold in the country, and have invested in sophisticated analytical test equipment that can detect the presence of active pesticides and their breakdown metabolites.

What about food safety concerns?

The high acidic nature of our soils and reliance on toxic synthetic pesticides, some linked to terminal diseases such as cancer and diabetes, are a source of great concern.  Most of these harmful pesticides leach into the water table contaminating aquatic sources and marine life.  Ninety-five per cent of all the foods arriving at our markets is contaminated with harmful pesticides.

Are all pesticides being used by Kenyan farmers enhancing food safety?

Over 70 per cent of all pesticides used in Kenya are known have the potential to cause cancer and other lifestyle diseases such as cardiovascular ailments and diabetes.

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