Siaya: The government plans to triple coffee production and make the crop the highest foreign exchange earner within the next five years, Cooperative Cabinet Secretary, Wycliff Oparanya has said. According to Oparanya, the government has put in place mechanisms to have the production shoot from the current 50,000 metric tons to 150,000 metric tons in the financial year 2028/2029.
According to Kenya News Agency, Oparanya, speaking at the Siaya National Polytechnic grounds during a meeting with coffee farmers from the county, said that as part of the plans, the government will this year issue free coffee seedlings to farmers. He urged farmers to take advantage of the government's initiative adding that apart from free seedlings, the government will also issue fertilizer and other inputs at subsidized rates to the farmers through their cooperatives.
The cabinet secretary, who was flanked by Siaya county secretary, Joseph Ogutu and the Siaya deputy county commissioner, Robert Ng'etich, urged farmers in the Western and Nyanza regions to discard the long-held notion that coffee cannot do well in the region. 'Our land here can grow coffee very well' he said, adding that it was because of historical inconveniences and mismanagement within the cooperative movement that production of the crop could not progress.
He, however, said that the government was working on legislation that will help farmers, adding that already, the cooperatives bill and the Coffee bill are pending before parliament. Oparanya said the government is committed to reducing poverty among Kenyans, hence the need for those within areas that could grow the crop to embrace it.
A coffee grower from Siaya, Sammy Weya, said the local soils and weather were conducive for coffee growing, saying that he has a variety that matures within one and a half years. 'Do not be cheated that our soils are bad and the crop cannot do well. Come to my farm. We have a variety that matures in one and a half years,' said Weya, a former member of parliament for Alego/Usonga constituency.
Weya, who is also a coffee seedlings producer, urged the government and the New Kenya Planters Cooperative Union to consider purchasing locally produced seedlings for distribution to farmers to avoid importing diseases from other regions.