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Tea Still Tops but Faces Many Hurdles

Details

Published on Wednesday, 12 October 2011 15:25

Tea production forms the economic backbone of Nyamira county despite being grown in small farms. The county is second to Kericho in production in western Kenya. The crop earned local farmers Sh1.7 billion last year.

The farmers deliver their produce to six factories -- Kebirigo, Gianchore, Tombe, Nyankoba, Sang'anyi and Nyansiongo where they are also shareholders.

Nyamira South district leads in production as Kebirigo and Gianchore tea factories collectively earned farmers more than Sh760 million, followed by Manga district where Tombe tea factory gave Sh340 million to farmers.

Other districts in the county are Masaba North where Nyankoba tea factory earned farmers Sh330 million, Borabu - Nyansiongo (Sh213 million) and Nyamira North (Sh110 million).

The area under the crop is 10, 585ha from where 69,193, 820 metric tonnes of green leaf was produced last year, according to the Nyamira South district agriculture officer, Mr David Munyi.

There are also bigger tea farms owned by multinational companies in the county.

They include Sotik and Kipkebe Tea companies which lie on the former white highlands of Borabu settlement scheme that neighbours Kericho.

Other agricultural activities in the county include livestock production which earned local farmers Sh341 million last year.

Pyrethrum production has declined sharply due to poor payment and inadequate planting materials.

According to Mr Munyi, the tea sector in the region faces competition from other agricultural crops like coffee, maize, bananas and dairy farming.

Other challenges, he noted, include hawking of green leaf by multinational companies, delayed leaf collection from buying centres especially during peak periods and poor crop management that leads to low yields.

A number of farmers interviewed accused KTDA of exploiting them by allegedly selling the crop at up to Sh600 per kg of ready tea at Mombasa warehouse auction whereas it paid growers only Sh12 per kg of leaf.

They said despite the small scale tea farmers being owners of their factories, the benefits are little due to bureaucracy.

The Kenya Tea Development Agency (KDTA) still has a stranglehold on the sector despite recent liberalisation.

KDTA still seconds its own staff as top managers of factories with predetermined high salary packages.

Despite farmers being represented in the management of the factories by directors, KTDA decides how many of such representatives should be elected by farmers and the period they should serve on rotational terms.

Other problems bedeviling the small scale growers include exploitation of multinational tea agents who buy green leaf in cash on delivery unlike KTDA that pays growers at the end of every month.

According to the Tea Act, any person found hawking tea shall be guilty of an offence that attracts penalties, which include a fine not exceeding Sh500,000 or 10 years imprisonment or both.

A meeting convened by tea stakeholders in Nyamira recently mandated security agents to arrest and prosecute the hawkers.

During the meeting, multinational agents and tea factory managers differed sharply over whether hawking should be banned.

Mr Samuel Ndubi, the secretary of Tea Outgrowers Association and Sotik Tea Company General Manager Nigel Leakey accused KTDA of exploiting farmers, prompting them to sell the produce to multinational companies.

"Small farmers should be allowed to sell their produce to whichever market that offer them good prices in this age of liberalisation," Mr Ndubi argued.

Mr Francis Migiro who represents the Kenya Tea board in the region said tea deliveries in the factories had drastically dropped due to hawking, a move, he noted, threatens their survival.

He says multinational agents are licensed by KTDA to only sell leaf from their own farms to multinational companies but not to buy from farmers contracted to KTDA.