Coffee fund gets Sh5b boost
The Government has announced a Sh4.7 billion boost to the Coffee Development Fund (CDF).
The fund will be operational by the end of this week, Agriculture minister Kipruto arap Kirwa said on Thursday. Kirwa said he would gazette new rules to govern the operation of the CDF this week.
He said Sh4.2 billion would be used to write off farmers' loans at the Co-operative Bank of Kenya, while the remaining Sh500 million would be advanced to farmers as low interest loans to boost production.
The Government would credit another Sh500 million to CDF after next month's Budget as part of a revolving fund, Kirwa said. The announcement was contained in a speech read on the minister's behalf by Agriculture Assistant minister Peter Kaindi during a conference in Nairobi.
The two-day event brought together stakeholders in the industry including farmers' representatives, coffee millers and marketing agents, coffee buyers, transporters, packers and warehousemen.
The meeting was organised by the Norwegian Church Aid (NCA), African Woman and Child Feature Services (AWC) and Building Eastern Africa Communities Network (BEACON).
Falling production
Kirwa said the Government was concerned about falling coffee production, which currently stands at 50,000 metric tons per year compared to 130,000 metric tons recorded during the 1987/88 period. He said a new board of trustees would be in place by end of this week and that new marketing rules would be gazetted. He said bickering among stakeholders had hampered CDF from becoming operational despite being provided for under the Coffee Act 2001.
He said CDF would be at liberty to attract funds from donors and Government agencies. Solomon Waweru, the Coffee Board of Kenya chairman, said that marketing agents were required to pay farmers within 14 days. "You should report any miller or marketing agent who fails to release money after the specified period so we can take action," said Waweru. Farmers at the conference demanded radical reforms in the coffee sector. In a memorandum presented to Kaindi, small-scale coffee growers drawn from 10 districts said it was time the Government reduced the marketing chain that "is crowded and corrupt." "The farmer has no authority to decide over his produce," they said in a two-page memorandum meant for Kirwa. They complained that infrastructure, insecurity and high costs of farm inputs were hurting coffee farming. "Farmers have inadequate access to loans, while quality seeds provided by the Coffee Research Foundation (CRF) are too expensive at Sh3,000 per kilo," they said.
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