Coffee farmers want task force report published
What you need to know:
- According to Othaya coffee society chairman James Gathua, gazetting the report will enable parliament to adopt it for legislation.
- Poor marketing strategies, high input prices, climate changes, milling, grading and classification issues are the main challenges facing the subsector according to Mr Nderitu.
Nyeri coffee farmers want a report by a task force gazette and published in local dailies as they fear recommendations may become effective without their knowledge.
They also want a meeting to be convened to allow them share their views before the report’s recommendations are implemented.
According to Othaya coffee society chairman James Gathua, gazetting the report will enable parliament to adopt it for legislation.
“From the report, we believe some sections in the cooperative Act and the coffee board Act will have to be replaced with new ones,” he said.
However, Mr Newton Nderitu a member of the task force committee, told the farmers there was no course for distress “as the report would be gazetted in about two weeks.”
“The report has been handed over to the president and an implementation team is being formed,” he said urging farmers to continue playing their part as there is a bright future in the industry.
“I call upon all coffee farmers to observe good agricultural practices to increase coffee production in terms of quality and quantity,” he added.
Poor marketing strategies, high input prices, climate changes, milling, grading and classification issues are the main challenges facing the subsector according to Mr Nderitu.
(Editing by Obed Simiyu)
