30 September 2008
editorial
Nairobi — A curious thing is happening in our tea-growing heartland. Farmers are uprooting the crop, and finding other uses for their land.
While the Tea Board of Kenya is legally right in its strident stand against this worrying trend, the farmers have a compelling argument.
Tea growing is a business venture like any other and there should be freedom of entry and exit.
The last few years have seen a steady decline in our tea industry, signalling a nadir for a crop that was once the country's biggest foreign exchange earner.
The cost of fertiliser and other inputs has spiralled while Kenya's traditional markets are under siege from more efficient large-scale producers like Sri Lanka and emergent ones like Vietnam.
Production for the period to August was 14.7 million kilogrammes against 17 million previously.
Kenya's model, which is 53 per cent dependent on small-holders and sells unprocessed tea to international markets through an auction system, is not delivering.
The Kenya Tea Development Agency, which manages 54 factories supplied by small-scale farmers, is yet to outlive the many woes that resulted in several reforms early this decade.
Political interference and influence peddling continue to be its lot and little has changed beyond its name. Maintaining this huge bureaucracy has become another cost centre for farmers.
The Tea Act, which outlaws uprooting, is a colonial relic that must be discarded.
Kenya must give priority to large-scale production, low-cost inputs, value addition and better corporate governance.
The Tea Board has no business threatening farmers who uproot the crop. It should instead give them cause not to.
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