Farmers bet on edible oils directorate to turn around fortunes

Deputy President William Ruto samples some Macadamia nuts at Wondernut International EPZ Ltd, where he officially opened the macademia nut processing factory. Looking on is Cabinet Secretary Industralization and Enterprise Development, Aden Mohamed(in glasses) and CEO Bobby Thomas in Athi River, Machakos County yesterday.

Nairobi; Kenya: Nuts and oils crops farmers have a reason to smile, following the formation of the Nuts and Oils Crops (NOC) directorate under the Agriculture, Fisheries and Food Authority (AFFA) formed a month ago. In the new agricultural reforms, NOC will now roll out technical facilitation and marketing promotion aspects of the agricultural sub-sector aimed at boosting production and value addition chains for the crops.

While growers of other major crops like tea, coffee, maize, pyrethrum, sisal, sugarcane and cotton have been relatively benefiting from facilitation by the State, those engaging in nuts and oils crops had no such formal support structures. Formerly the Kenya Coconut Development Authority (KCDA), NOC now has a wider mandate to include cashew nuts, macadamia, groundnuts, palm oil, simsim, sunflowers and other nuts and oils producing crops.

NOC Interim head Raymond Kahindi said the country imports huge quantities of value added nuts and oil products while local farmers fetch poor returns for exported raw products that are low valued, adding that the agency seeks to reverse the trend.

He said the present growth status of the coconut value chain which has witnessed an emergence of cottage industries attributed to the now defunct KCDA's advocacy, adding that NOC will replicate the same for other nuts and oils crops. "Now we have a one-stop-shop for farmers and if we request for a budget of coconuts we shall equally request for a budget for all the others," he explained, adding that the potential of these crops was hindered by lack of a legal entity to oversee their industries development.

"The directorate now has a national face because coconut is a coastal crop and I think it's an added advantage to stakeholders because for instance, we've been dealing with farmers who also farm other crops such as cashew nuts and now we are integrating all the nuts and oils and they are going to benefit more," he said.

He observed that years of operating informally deprived farmers of governmental support to boost their earnings. "We know they're are associations that have been there for Macadamia and Cashew nuts farmers for example but without proper lead structures, the technical and budgetary facilitation has not been reaching them," he said.

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Kahindi said the directorate will soon be embarking on a sensitisation programme across the country to educate stakeholders about the changes and types of services they will be receiving from the agency. The directorate will then undertake a baseline survey to establish the current status of all crops in a move aimed at informing the implementation of development strategies.

"The first thing we are going to embark on Cashew nut for example is the seedlings roll out so that we encourage its growing because most of the trees have been cut down and we cannot talk about growth and sustenance of local processing industries if we don't have the acreages to support the required productions" he said.

He however noted that the development of all the crops under the directorate's mandate cannot be realized on the same platform as each crop has their unique status and levels of industry growth.