Better times for pyrethrum growers as sector recovery plan gathers momentum
Mr Solomon Odera, the managing director pyrethrum and other industrial crops directorate during the interview in Nakuru. SULEIMAN MBATIAH | NATION MEDIA GROUP
What you need to know:
- We set aside Sh30 million in this financial year for purchase of planting materials. We’re using a three prong approach. First, we’re buying mature plants from farmers who never uprooted their crops and then splitting them for planting.
- We have had to supplement supply of flowers from farmers with grist, which is added to the dried flowers to enable the factory, have enough material to grind.
Solomon Odera was fished from the troubled sugar sector in August last year and posted to the wobbling pyrethrum industry as the Managing Director of Pyrethrum and Other Industrial Crops Directorate. Nearly 11 months after his new posting, the once lucrative industry that has been on its deathbed is back on recovery path. Francis Mureithi spoke to Odera on what he is doing to enable farmers earn more
You have been in office for about a year now, what is the status of the industry?
The sector is on recovery path but we have not yet reached where we want to be. A number of farmers are trooping back to the farms, which is encouraging and it is just a matter of time before we recover our lost ground.
Farmers who deliver their dried flowers at Nakuru factory are now paid Sh100 per kilo on the spot as they wait for their flowers to be processed and analysed.
Currently we are paying farmers depending on the pyrthrin content up to a maximum of Sh375 per kilo. The financial support we have received from the government in the last two years has helped greatly.
Seems like a lot of positive things are happening in the sector, but why the slow growth?
The thing is that not all of us are pulling in the same direction. There is a lot of politics in the sector, which needs to stop if we are to grow.
We also have shortage of planting materials. If we sort out this, we would have solved 70 per cent of our problems.
What are you doing to address the issues?
We set aside Sh30 million in this financial year for purchase of planting materials. We’re using a three prong approach. First, we’re buying mature plants from farmers who never uprooted their crops and then splitting them for planting.
Second, we have planted 700kg of seedlings which we’re distributing to cooperatives and self-help groups. Lastly, we are embracing tissue culture where we produce planting materials in the laboratory.
The government allocated Sh300 million to the sector in the recent budget. What is your take?
This makes the total sum injected in the sector in the last three financial years to Sh900 million. If this kind of support is sustained, we shall increase production and acreage and by 2017, we shall have enough material to allow the Nakuru factory to break even.
The multibillion Nakuru factory is largely idle…
The most unfortunate thing about the factory is that we have to accumulate at least 100 metric tonnes of flowers to run it. This takes time, about three months which means the factory cannot run continuously.
We have had to supplement supply of flowers from farmers with grist, which is added to the dried flowers to enable the factory, have enough material to grind.
To break even, we need about 2,000 metric tonnes of flowers annually. In the last financial year, we only crushed 400 metric tonnes and this financial year we hope to do 500 metric tonnes. For this factory to run smoothly, we need between 17,000 and 18,000 metric tonnes of dried flowers annually.
New regulations to guide the industry are still not yet out. How has this affected the revival process?
The regulations are supposed to support the implementation of the Crops and AFFA Acts. The draft regulations were submitted to the Attorney General’s office but they were recalled as we did not do enough consultations with the 18 pyrethrum growing counties.
We have started the due process and already I have held a meeting with the County Executive Committee Members in-charge of Agriculture to fast-track the process. We are concluding our talks in for allow the laws to be gazetted.
Some counties want to put up their processing factories. What do you advise?
It is difficult for a county to set up a profitable facility alone. The best way is to allow the private sector to come in and play a key role in setting up such infrastructure. Counties should support farmers by buying them planting materials so that they can expand their planting acreage.
No investors would come to an area that has no enough raw materials. This is a sector that should attract many foreign investors if the county governments put in policies that would allow investors to do business with them.
