Changes in coffee sub-sector necessary

The coffee sub-sector is a good example of what happens when man is made to serve the law instead of the law being made to serve man.

Laws and regulations that govern coffee farming are so many and discriminatory that it is a miracle coffee farming in the country is doing well.

Farmers need to conduct a referendum to push for a new policy and regulatory framework.

Without strong Government support, coffee growing in Kenya will be dead in the next ten years.

What then can the Government do to save the situation?

Agriculture is a devolved function and county governments are in charge. The fact that some farmers are getting high pay is a confirmation that even with the current system, coffee farming can be pleasantly rewarding.Farmers need a credit scheme that provides inputs like chemicals, fertilisers and forward payments on credit.

The farmers need constant expert advice from the Coffee Research Foundation (CRF), a Government body that specialises in cutting-edge farming techniques.

However, CRF is hidden deep in Ruiru coffee estates and mainly serves large coffee plantations.

For a region like Murang’a, for farmers to get to where high earning farmers are at the moment, their governor needs to learn firsthand what other governors in coffee-growing regions have been trying to do to help in coffee farming.

First, society’s management must be transparent to avoid a situation where officials borrow needlessly and farmers are forced to pay. Book-keeping must be professional.

Secondly, millers must be monitored closely so as to open the milling process to scrutiny and ensure that quality grading is done.

These must be implemented so as to push the yield per stem from the current 2kgs to over 25kgs or over ten times more.

Such that a farmer with only 200 trees can earn up to Sh400,000 per year since good quality berries fetch up to Sh80 per kg.

Without Government support, value addition techniques are not possible because it requires billions of shillings to implement them.

The coffee auction also needs competition for better prices.