The government has devised new ways to revive the ailing coffee sector, among them the establishment of a coffee research institution.
This comes as a wake-up call, seeing that statistics show that Kenyan coffee production for the 2019-2020 financial year dropped to 650,000 bags, the lowest output in over 50 years. At the same time, annual exportation dropped from 140,000 metric tonnes to a mere 44,000 metric tonnes.
The government will finance the establishment of the Coffee Research Institute, which will help us come with drought-resistance crops, value addition techniques, and ways of attracting youth into coffee farming.
Principal Secretary of the State Department for Agricultural Research, Hamadi Boga
Another measure the government has devised to revive the sector is the introduction of cheap loans for coffee farmers. This will be done through a KSh3 billion Coffee Cherry Advance Revolving Fund that the government has set up.
According to the New Kenya Planters’ Cooperative Union, the National Treasury has already given them KSh2.7 billion. Therefore, they are only waiting for the regulations that will govern the fund. This is in accordance with the Public Finance Management Act.
Therefore, starting from next month, farmers will be able to access loans that attract low-interest rates of only 3%. However, the amount of loans the farmers will access will be dependent on the amount of coffee they produce.
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