Relief for farmers as Swiss commodity trader Ecom partner key players to revive ailing coffee sub-sector

Swiss commodity trader Ecom Agroindustrial has announced a partnership with five firms to support revival of Kenya coffee sector.

The partnership brings together Sustainable Management Services Ltd (SMS), a wholly owned subsidiary of the world’s second-biggest coffee trader, Kentainers Ltd, Kenya National Farmers’ Federation (Kenaff), Kendbip, SNV (Netherlands Development Organisation) and Hivos Foundation.

According to SMS Project Manager Anthony Ngugi, the arrangement aims to help create a viable smallholder coffee farming systems to regain its vitality and assure long term sustainability for smallholder farmers.

“Its purpose is to reinvigorate the coffee sector in the region and offer long term business opportunities for 2.4 million smallholder coffee farmers and sixteen million people dependent on the sector,” he said during the agreement signing ceremony in Kikuyu town. Ecom also announced a five-year public-private partnership under a project named Sustainable and Secure Smallholder Systems @ Scale (4S@Scale).

Kenya National Domestic Biogas Programme Project (Kendbip) Co-ordinator George Nyamu said the project seeks to integrate biodigesters as part of a whole farming system for smallholder coffee farmers in Kenya. “4S@Scale will install a total of 16,000 biodigesters from now until 2018,’’ he explained.

This, Nyamu added, will be done by Kenaff as the national implementing agency. A biodigester is a device or structure, which allows digestion of organic waste matter by anaerobic bacteria to take place resulting in production of a burnable biogas and a nutrient-rich slurry.

The partnership comes at a time when coffee production in the country has decreased by more than 50 per cent in the last 20 years due to lower market prices. The Government has expressed concern that Kenya might lose its position in the global market owing to sharp decline in coffee production.

The country is producing about 50,000 metric tonnes compared to 130,000 recorded in 1988/89 coffee year. Ms Judith Libaisi, Business Development and Extension Advisor at SNV said the signing of the pact heralds a new beginning for the coffee sub-sector in Kenya.

“World coffee price has been sinking, coffee farmers have been uprooting their crops and real estate is replacing coffee plantations. All of them have been bad news indeed both for the smallholders and the country,” she added.

Organic fertiliser

Kentainers, a company of AquaSanTec group, brings into the partnership an environment-friendly innovation called BlueFlame BioSlurriGaz to help smallholders coffee farmers produce their own nutrient-rich organic fertiliser – “bioslurry”.

AquaSanTec group Chairman Chandu Shah, said to promote rapid adoption of BlueFlame by farmers, he found it necessary to bring together all relevant stakeholders including smallholders, Kentainers, Kenaff, Kendbip, SNV, Hivos and Kenya Dairy Board. “Under this new initiative,Kenaff, Kendbip, SNV, Hivos, SMS, Kentainers and SMS Client Smallholders will undertake their respective roles, in the 4S@Scale Project areas of Meru, Bungoma, Embu, Murang’a, TharakaNithi and Machakos”, said Ms Libaisi.