Kericho Seeks More Earnings From Pineapples, Sweet Potatoes
Posted on :Tuesday , 5th January 2016
Your administration has launched a legal process against Britain for compensation of the Kipsigis and the Talai for their land now under tea. Won't the move disrupt the multi-billion tea sector?
This case is not targeting the tea estates and our investors should not worry.
We are addressing appalling events that occurred nearly 100 years ago whereby our people were thrown into difficult circumstances when the British took away their land.
The victims still exist. They are living in abject poverty while what used to be their land is now part of a huge tea estate.
It is only fair that they must be compensated.
Mau Mau veterans were compensated for ills committed against them and we are not different.
The tea sector has also been hit by fluctuating market prices. How are you cushioning farmers?
Most of the challenges facing the sector are pegged to an ongoing case in court and I may not discuss it directly.
I can say that we are waiting for the court to determine whether is it in order for Kenya Tea Development Agency to levy tea farmers among other concerns.
We hope better days in the tea industry will come soon.
So what should farmers look to?
Pineapple farming is one of the greatest contributors to the region's economy.
Over 1,860 hectares of land in the region is under pineapple cultivation.
We currently produce 93,000 metric tonnes of the fruit every year, but we have the potential of producing more than 500,000 metric tonnes.
There has been a problem with the marketing of the produce especially during peak seasons when farmers are forced to sell them at a throw away price of as low as Sh5 per piece.
But we are in the process of completing the construction of the fruit processing factory in Roret, Bureti Constituency, which will offer ready market to pineapples.
We have bought Sh11 million worth of equipment for the factory.
Sahara Communities Abroad (Sacoma) recently announced it had got market in the UK for your sweet potatoes. Do you have capacity?
Yes, we got a tender to export five tonnes of sweet potatoes weekly to the European Union.
We don't have that capacity, so we are partnering with neighbouring counties in the Lake Region Economic Bloc such as Kisumu and Homa Bay to meet the demand.
Meanwhile, Sh4 million construction of a sweet potato cleaning and packaging plant in Kiptere, Sigowet/Soin Constituency is ongoing from where eight varieties of the crop will be bulked in readiness for export.
Other than sweet potatoes, my government is also seeking international markets for other crops like bananas and sorghum.
A photo of you and your deputy Susan Kikwai carrying twin calves went viral on social media. What was the picture about?
That was in Kapsoit. We were celebrating one of the success stories of the high quality Artificial Insemination (AI) programme carried out in the county last year.
We offered the service for free yet farmers used to pay Sh1,500.
The aim here was to improve the overall quality of our herds and in the process raise the income of farmers.
The project has already increased milk production. In fact, we have installed four milk coolers and one pasteuriser to cooperative societies across our five constituencies which can hold combined milk capacity of 11,000 litres.
To control diseases and reduce animal deaths, we also undertook a massive vaccination drive against the East Coast Fever, foot and mouth disease and rehabilitated a number of dips.
Technology boosts earnings, yet uptake is still low. What are you doing on this front?
Our extension services officers are now doing rounds in farms instead of waiting to be called.
We have also invested in developing infrastructure in our agricultural training centres to help in effective transfer of technologies to farmers.
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