Lucas Barasa
2 October 2008
Nairobi — The Ministry of Agriculture has been directed to urgently resolve problems in the tea sector that have led farmers to uproot the cash crop in parts of the country.
Speaking when he officially opened the Nairobi International Trade Fair on Thursday, the tough-talking President Kibaki ordered the ministry, headed by Eldoret North MP William Ruto, to liaise with the Kenya Tea Development Agency in resolving the problems facing the sector.
"The poor management of factories can be resolved quickly. I direct the Agriculture Ministry to work with KTDA and factories to resolve these problems," the President said, urging farmers not to abandon the crop.
He named other ills facing Kenya's once major foreign exchange earner as high costs of inputs and labour.
The Head of State said the tea sector registered a 19 per cent growth last year, earning the country Sh47 billion, second only to horticulture which netted Sh65 billion.
The President said it is wrong for farmers to abandon tea at a time when its prices were rising in the international market.
He said farmers should be properly rewarded for their work and that they should earn 90 per cent of the price of their produce.
He said the agriculture sector in the country will continue to register positive improvements and that overall it had grown by more than 5 per cent in the last five years.
Some tea farmers have in the recent past complained of poor prices for their crop and gone ahead to uproot it.
On Thursday, President Kibaki explained that the Government was making efforts to boost the cereal, sugar, coffee and livestock sectors and appealed to farmers to take agriculture as a commercial activity to improve earnings, food security, reduction of poverty and job creation.
He said that agriculture, which is Kenya's economic mainstay is pivotal for Kenya's success in its quest to become a modern industrialised nation by 2030.
Mr Ruto, who rode in the same open motorcade with the President as he toured the exhibition stands, announced that the Government had set aside 500,000 acres of land to plant crops for the production of biofuels to help cut the rising fuel costs.
He hailed President Kibaki's intervention to promote agriculture and said the first batch of fertiliser to cushion farmers from high prices will arrive in the country by the end of this month.
Mr Ruto said the first auction ever for importation of sugar from Common Markets for Eastern Africa will be held soon to help weed out cartels in the sector.
New rules for the tea sector that will give farmers a say on what happens to their produce, he added, will be gazetted on Friday.
He also said that the Biosafety Bill will be discussed by Parliament, which reopens next week.
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