The Mountain Journal
A programme has been established to involve youth in coffee
farming following the threat of low production in Murang’a County.
A visibility study conducted three years ago blamed the low
production of farmers aged 60 years and above dominating the sector leading to
low production.
In efforts to address the low production, Murang’a County
Government has partnered with Murang’a Farmers Cooperative Union on plans to
bring youth on board in revitalizing the coffee sub sector.
Photo/ Deputy Governor Stephen Munania who will be the patron in the coffee revival programme.
Murang’a Deputy Governor Stephen Munania said in the
partnership to be launched tomorrow, each of the coffee society will nominate
three youth who will be trained on coffee husbandry.
The deputy governor
spoke at Mbombo during the launch of the programme saying it would be later rolled out
in the 144 coffee factories in efforts to enhance production of coffee eying better returns.
According to statistics from the Union in the
1980’s and 1990’s the county produced over 100,000 metric tonnes of the
commodity.
There are 38 coffee societies manning 144 coffee
factories that in 2020/2021 produced 21,700,799 kilogrammes of coffee earning
Sh2.6 billion.
In the previous year (2019/2020) the farmers earned Sh2.3
billion after producing 32,905,879 kilogramme.
Munania said each youth will have a demonstration farm of
100 or more coffee bushes where they will be trained on how to nurture the
coffee plants with the aim to increase production.
“The demonstration farms will be used to teach farmers on
how to increase coffee production,” said the deputy governor, adding that the
programme will train the youth to address the challenges facing the sector.
Union Chairman Francis Ngone observed that coffee
production has been low thus the need to employ effective measures to
turn around the situation.
“We want to bring on board young people in the coffee sector
starting with training them,” said Ngone.
During the swearing in ceremony, Governor Irungu
Kang’ata asked management of coffee societies to work closely with the county government,
in the revival of the coffee sub-sector which has been rocked by numerous
challenges.
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