Companies

Drought hits cash crop harvests in Rift Valley

tea

Part of Kapsumbeiywa Tea Estate in Nandi that striking workers protesting over pay raise burnt last month. PHOTO | FILE

Multinational tea companies and thousands of small-scale farmers who have invested in industrial crops in the Rift Valley region are staring at massive losses due to effects of the ongoing drought, which has resulted in a drastic decline in production.

Some of the tea companies have been forced to prune their cash crop and lay off some workers to cut down on operational costs due to poor yields over the past four months because of the drought.

“We have no option but to prune the crop and reduce the workforce due to a drop in production that has impacted negatively on our revenue generation,” said Josiah Tallam, a tea farmer in Nandi-Hills.

The Ministry of Agriculture has attributed the projected decline in production of the cash crops to dry weather between January and June.

“The decreased rains will have a negative effect on development of such cash crops like tea, coffee, sugarcane and pyrethrum in the region,” stated a recent annual agricultural report.

The multinationals in Nandi have said they would incur huge losses over the next four years after protesting workers set 70 acres of tea on fire in a pay row.

The companies said the arson attack on two plantations in Nandi Hills early last month would hurt their revenue and operations.

“The two tea plantations generate an average of Sh12.5 million monthly translating to Sh150 million yearly and it will take four years before the burnt tea bushes regenerate,” said a senior manager who requested not to be named since is not authorised to speak to the media.

The tea companies are contemplating uprooting the damaged crop and replant afresh.

The Ministry of Agriculture also cited high prevalence of neglected fields as another reason for the decline in coffee production in the region.

The Rift Valley produced 65,618.50 metric tonnes of the cash crop last season but the harvest is projected to drop due diseases and neglected farms.

“Coffee production remains a profitable venture as maize and wheat cultivation despite challenges facing the sector,” said Peter Boit, Uasin Gishu-based coffee farmer.

Wheat production in the region declined from six to four million tonnes this season due to erratic rainfall in the South Rift.

The attack of the crop by birds, Russian wheat aphids, loppers and rust have also contributed to decline wheat production, especially in Narok, according to the annual agricultural report.

Narok accounts for more than half of the wheat produced in the country while the rest is from the North Rift. Kenya imports wheat from Egypt and Mauritius under the Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa bloc to meet the deficit.