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Munya now mulls expanded coffee cherry fund use

munya

Agriculture Cabinet Secretary Peter Munya. FILE PHOTO | NMG

The Ministry of Agriculture is considering expanding the Sh3 billion coffee cherry fund to offer additional services in the sector following a slow uptake by farmers.

Agriculture Cabinet Secretary Peter Munya said even though the fund was meant for loaning, it is sufficiently large and can be utilised for other activities within the sector.

The announcement follows revelations that only Sh300 million from the cherry fund has been disbursed since it was introduced a year ago.

“Even though it was meant for loaning, we think it’s large enough and can be utilised for other things, but we still want it to remain a revolving fund to help stabilise the coffee sector. We do not want to take it to risky business,” said Mr Munya.

“We are trying to see what other services are there that we may review regulations so that to support the farmers because that money is there and given the size of the sector, all of it may not go to loaning,” he added.

The slow uptake has been attributed to lack of farmer sensitisation in what has been blamed on cooperative societies for not giving adequate information to their members while others have been cited as a stumbling block towards the disbursement of funds.

Mr Munya in January alleged that managers of some co-operatives societies are blocking members from applying for cheaper loans from the Sh3billion cherry fund, frustrating investment in farming of the crop.

He said some officials colluded with commercial banks to profiteer through costly loans to farmers.

The cherry advance levy was announced by President Uhuru Kenyatta in 2019 and is aimed at helping farmers meet financial obligations after harvesting crop in order to minimize the time that it takes for growers to get their earnings from their co-operative societies.

Normally, farmers harvest and sell crop through co-operatives and have to wait for more than a month before payment, but the new cash injection has change this.

The government will later recover the funds after farmers sell the produce by deducting the amount advanced plus a three percent interest rate.