Tea production by State-owned Nyayo Tea Zones Development Corporation (NTZDC), which runs plantations on buffer farm belts around the country’s forests, declined by 10.35 percent in the first quarter of the year, even as private tea growers enjoyed bumper harvests due to good rains.
Data from the Tea Board of Kenya (TBK) shows that tea output from the zones shrunk to 1.34 million kilogrammes (kg) between January and March compared to an output of 1.5 million kilogrammes during the same period last year.
The buffer zones cover an area of 9,289 hectares and straddled 10 forests across the country and are managed by NTZDC.
The State Corporation was established by the late president Daniel Arap Moi’s government to provide a buffer between forests and neighbouring communities to prevent deforestation.
Tea bushes cover 43 percent of the Nyayo Tea Zones while the remaining 57 percent is under assorted tree species.
But tea output from the zones has remained lackluster over the years even as private tea farms continue to record significant increases in production of the green leaf during the period.
