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Tea Growers Demand Improved Services
- Details
- Published on Wednesday, 18 July 2007 03:32
The farmers said they had incurred heavy losses due to uncollected leaves for lack of a definite collection programme.
Their spokesman, Mr Stanley Ondoro, said leaf was being collected from the centres at about 10am when many faremrs were still picking.
Mr Ondoro suggested that the factory emulate other factories' collection programmes, where "leaf is not collected for up to two days".
But a director, who asked not to be named, said the factory had been overwhelmed by leaves in the last three weeks.
"We were not prepared for the overwhelming tea leaves. We ask the farmers to bear with us as we sort out the problem," he said.
He blamed the poor state of roads in the area for any shortcomings in tea collection. "The poor roads have led to a breakdown of very many of our vehicles," he said.
The farmers appealed to the minister for Agriculture, Mr Kipruto arap Kirwa, to have the feeder roads improved for a better service to the farmers.
