Nairobi — In ongoing efforts to revive cotton farming in the country, the Kenya government has introduced a new cotton variety, Hart 89M.

The new variety has the potential to produce over 2,500kg of cotton per hectare in rain-fed farming and 5,000kg using irrigation. Also being introduced is a new farming model known as the MSME Competitive Project, which involves helping businesses and farmers to access finance, strengthen their enterprise skills, create market links and improve the general cotton business environment.

The project, funded to the tune of Ksh2.5 billion ($37.8 million) by the World Bank, Business Partners International, the British International Department for International Development (DfID) and the government of Kenya, has already been credited for an increase in production by as much as 80 per cent, raising hopes for the sector's revival.

In Kirinyaga district alone, for instance, farmers increased cotton production by 32 per cent, from 850 bales in 2006 to 1,260 in 2007.

As Kenya struggles to revamp the sector, Tanzania expects its cotton harvest to increase by between 40 and 50 per cent in the 2008/09 season. The increase, according to the Tanzania Cotton Board, is due to favourable weather and good cotton prices.

Tanzania earned $71.7 million from cotton exports in the year ended March 2008, up from $40.6 million in a similar period in 2007.

Some decades ago, cotton was a major foreign exchange-earner for Kenya, providing jobs to thousands of peasant farmers and textile factory workers. Today production and supply are so low that the few garment manufacturers have resorted to importation of raw material.

The country's cotton production has been dwindling since the mid 1980s, from an all-time high of over 120,000 bales annually to the current 20,000 bales.

Currently, Kenya faces a production shortage of over 100,000 bales of cotton lint, with less than half of the total established ginneries running.

The ginneries are themselves facing collapse due to lack of raw materials and most are operating at only 30 per cent of their capacity.

Since the start of the decline in cotton production in the country a number of initiatives have been launched to revive the industry.

However the government has not lived up to its promises and the cotton and textile sector is still stagnant as farmers complain of high chemical pesticide prices, which account for nearly 25 per cent of total costs.

"Cotton production depends heavily on clean, disease-free seeds and expensive chemical pesticides. It also requires strict observation of cultivation dates," said Musa Okello, a once large-scale cotton farmer in Nyanza, in an interview with The EastAfrican.

Despite the efforts to revive cotton farming, , no material growth in production has been witnessed. Instead, the few remaining cotton farmers have opted for small-scale growing.

Mr Okello says the industry's future is still in the balance, citing the unclear role of the government in supporting farmers and the textile industry at large. "Numerous studies have been done on the cotton and textile industry, but they are yet to be implemented.

People who are supposed to implement the policies are not even adequately consulted," he said.

The once giant Kisumu Cotton Mills (Kicomi) and Rift Valley Textile Mills (Rivatex) in Kisumu and Eldoret, respectively, are yet to resume operations -- approximately two decades after they collapsed.

The former, having been bought by the Eldoret-based Moi University for Ksh205 million ($3.10m) recently, is expected to start operations soon once the university's inject of Ksh800 million ($12.12m).

The drop in cotton production is blamed on, first, the importation of used clothes, locally known as mitumba. Second, the liberalisation of the economy in the 1990s led to an influx of cheaper textile products into the country and the average capacity utilisation in the textile mills too declined to about 50 per cent.

The Kenya Institute of Public Policy Research and Analysis (KIPPRA) blames the decline on competition from cheap imports following market liberalisation.

In a report titled, "Trade Policy Reforms and Poverty in Kenya: The Cotton-Textile Sub-Sector," KIPPRA estimates that the country's cotton industry only meets 45 per cent of local demand, with cheap textile imports from Dubai, Singapore and Turkey dominating the segment. It proposes the implementation of harsh tax measures on textile imports to insulate local players from unfair competition.

The Kenya Agricultural Research Institute (KARI) says if cotton farming is to be revived, marketing, processing, manufacturing, research and extension services must be integrated to complement each other instead of operating in isolation.

In a report on how to revive the industry, KARI says: "Research has played an important role by importing and developing new cultivars, developing suitable husbandry practices, studying and recommending fertiliser use, studying pest and disease problems and recommending control measures."

Increases in production, have been registered recently, pushing the country's production to 45,000 bales annually from 20,000.

The increase is attributed to the African Growth and Opportunity Act (Agoa) which "offers tangible incentives to African countries to open their economies and build free markets."

Kenya was elected to chair the US Africa Ministerial Consultative Group meeting and to host the 8th Agoa forum in 2009 at the 6th United States-sub-Saharan Trade and Economic Co-operation Forum held in Ghana last year.