Coffee production is set to increase to 47, 000 MT this year
compared to 45, 000 MT last year due to an expanded plantation area, a
coffee directorate official has said.
According to
Interim Director in the Agriculture and Food Authority (AFA) coffee
Directorate Grenivile Miili the provision of subsidised fertilizer to
farmers has increased yields hence the enlargement of area under
cultivation by farmers.
“The land under coffee production has increased from 109,000 hectares to 114,000 hectares,” he said.
Farmers
earned more than Sh23 billion in 2015/2016 coffee year from a total
production of 45, 000 MT up from Sh22.3 billion achieved in 2014/2015.
In
addition, he said there were strategies in place to increase the area
under coffee to 130, 000 hectares by 2020 through implementation of the
integrated coffee production and productivity initiative (ICPP).
The project targets 21 Counties, both in coffee emerging and traditional coffee zones for expansion of hectares under coffee.
“This
will raise the production from the current 42,038 metric tonnes clean
coffee achieved in 2014/15 coffee year to 92,000 MT by 2020,” he said.
About
800, 000 smallholder farmers are affiliated to 500 cooperative
societies in the country and 4, 000 plantations are involved in coffee
production which draw the livelihood from coffee earnings.
“Due
to the industry’s effective forward and backward linkages it is
currently contributing about 0.2 per cent to the GDP and eight per cent
to the agricultural sector,” said Mr Miili adding that it contributes 30
per cent of employment in the agricultural sector.
The
country sells off its coffee to more than 30 countries around the world
where Germany, United States, Belgium, Canada being the leading off
takers of coffee.
Mr Miili said AFA was currently
seeking to diversify export markets of the cash crop which is most
traded in the country next to oil.
He said through the
supply to United Kingdom had significantly dropped for the last six
years, supply to France and Korea has doubled since 2009 accounting to
78 per cent of exported coffee.
No comments :
Post a Comment