Boost for tea farmers as KTDA imports fertilizer

Mombasa,

Wednesday, October 18, 2023

KNA by Chari Suche

Small-scale tea farmers will get subsidized fertilizers after Kenya Tea Development Agency (KTDA) received 47,800 tons (956,000 of 50kg bags) of fertilizer for the distribution of over 650,000 smallholder tea farmers across the country.

The ship for the fertilizer consignment docked at the port of Mombasa on Monday ahead of the offloading and subsequent distribution process which was done today by the Cabinet Secretary for Agriculture and Livestock Development Mithika Linturi.

Linturi who flagged off the shipment to upcountry said that the government has plans to increase harvests this year thus the move to provide fertilizer to farmers across the country.

He said the overall consumption of fertilizer to farmers is over 95,000 metric tons whereby there are two ships to dock in the country with one having arrived, and the other one to come in two weeks.

He said from now on up to November farmers will be able to receive enough fertilizer for application in their tea farms.

“This is timely as the rains have just set in, and the application of fertilizer at the right time has a serious bearing on production. We are pleading to the farmers to double their efforts and pick the fertilizers on time so that we can boost our production this year,” he said.

He noted that going by the current trade, farmers will be able to produce more kilos of green leaves and deliver more earnings.

He added that the government is currently working on tea reforms in which they will come up with legal policies and administrative mechanisms so that farmers get the best out of what they do.

“The government continually tries to support KTDA and farmers so that they get fertilizers at affordable prices. When we started the subsidy programme to support our farmers, the 50kg bag was going for Sh.3500 last year and the government had to make sure it goes down as we are now selling fertilizer at Sh.2500,” he said.

The CS asked farmers to take advantage of the subsidy by the government to ensure there is increased production of food in the country and increased productivity.

He said there are several programs that the government has put in place towards adding value adding that all the value chains that they focused on are on course.

He said they have also agreed on working with relevant stakeholders to be able to provide resources to do common user facilities that will add value to the tea so that farmers are able to sell finished products.

He said the government is also prioritizing supporting KTDA and farmers’ factories to install processing lines that will be able to produce orthodox tea.

“Worldwide, orthodox tea is fetching high premium prices thus calling for investment on that line so that across the country there are many factories which will in turn translate to good pricing for tea farmers,” he said.

Courtesy; KNA