Coffee farmers have been urged to mill and market their produce through the New Kenya Planters Cooperative Union (KPCU).
Speaking in Ndagani, Tharaka Nithi County on Friday 02, December 2022, New KPCU Chairman Hassan Kithinji noted that it was high time farmers embraced New KPCU, since it was incorporated to eradicate middlemen and fetch maximum proceeds after cooperative societies had exploited farmers for years due to massive corruption and theft by management.
The Friday afternoon meeting was set to address grievances raised by Ndagani Society Coffee Farmers that incorporates Ndogo, Kurugucha and Mwema factories after they received a pay rate of KShs 20 per kilo in their last harvest unlike other societies that received better pay.
According to the farmers, their society had tasked a private firm within the county with milling and marketing their coffee but felt shortchanged by the manner in which the miller had handled their payments accusing its management of corruption and theft.
In his speech, Kithinji noted that New KPCU had begun programs in coffee growing counties to train and create awareness on coffee growing as a way of reviving the farming, saying structures were in place to ensure transparency and equal rights to farmers.
“The major problem with coffee producers is poor leadership and mismanagement of societies that ends up with farmers not being involved in decisions made by the society that include milling and marketing of their produce. At New KPCU, we guarantee that the coffee belongs to the farmer until sold”, he said.
Kithinji further acknowledged that the parastatal was non-profit, and it was not a requirement for coffee farmers through their societies to mill and market their coffee under New KPCU but guaranteed better incomes, involvement and transparency to farmers.
He went on to promise and end to coffee farming cartels and brokers who only served at their own personal interest and not that of the farmers, saying the government understood the needs of farmers and was in the process to revamp coffee farming.
Kithinji went on to sensitize Coffee farmers on the Coffee Cherry Advance Revolving Fund and the Coffee Farm Inputs Subsidy Program, where he reiterated the need for coffee farmers to take advantage of these programs.
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