The Murang’a county government will introduce new coffee varieties in a bid to double production to 70 million tonnes annually. Agriculture executive Albert Mwaniki on Tuesday said they were already giving the new varieties to farmers to realise the target in the next two years.
The county currently produces 35 million tonnes of coffee annually. But production was declining.
Mwaniki attributed the decline to poor seedlings and archaic farming methods. Coffee farming is the main economic activity of most Murang’a residents.
“We are determined to take coffee production back to where it was 30 years ago,” Mwaniki told a workshop in Naivasha.
According to Mwaniki, the county was producing 19 million tonnes in 2013, when the county government came into being. The county gave incentives to farmers and introduced modern seedlings with high yields.
“We provided four million seeds of modern varieties that enabled us to increase production to 35 million tonnes annually. We are confident of hitting the 70 million tonnes annually in the next two years,” Mwaniki said.
The county also sourced manure from Kajiado to improve fertility.
“Most people said we were joking when we sent lorries to collect the manure, but we knew what we were doing. Today, were are celebrating the gains made,” Mwaniki said.
The county has also come up with an ‘adopt a coffee tree’ initiative aimed at planting and taking care of 50 coffee trees in each homestead.
“We will follow up to see how farmers are taking care of the trees. It is part of our wider campaign to revive coffee farming,” Mwaniki said.
He was addressing the press after a coffee round table meeting of the Council of Governors at the Enashipai Resort in Naivasha.
CoG Agriculture chairman Stephen Sang said governors had agreed to urgently undertake legal reforms in the sector.
Sang, also the Nandi governor, said the coffee and tea industries were crucial to the economy because they employ thousands of Kenyans.
“We have agreed on various interventions that will be carried out by both the national and county governments because we are currently doing badly in terms of production,” Sang said.
Last year, Murang’a county allocated Sh1.3 billion to revive the coffee sector. Governor Mwangi wa Iria said the cash would finance 300,000 farmers to plant an additional 50 coffee trees each, targeting production of 15 million kilogrammes by 2019.
The county was to finance the purchase of compost manure, fertilisers, herbicides and pesticides. “The sole purpose is to make sure that we attain top quality in our coffee harvests since this is the area that has been dealing our farmers a fatal blow in terms of earnings,” Wa Iria said.
Murang’a farmers produce an average 300,000kg of coffee a season, earning Sh9 million.