As coffee farmers break their backs on their farms to produce an average of three kilograms from a single tree, Charles Mutwiri is an exception.
Through his Mukarimu Coffee Estate in Meru County, the 62-year-old has over 20,000 bushes in different parcels of land spread across Imenti.
Mutwiri made a good impression when Deputy President Rigathi Gachagua, who was attending the Coffee Summit in Meru recently, visited his farm to learn how he has achieved success in coffee farming.
Mutwiri recently accompanied Mr Gachagua on the Kenyan delegation trip to the Coffee Producers and Roasters Forum in Medellin, Colombia on a bench-marking trip that also brought together stakeholders from across the world.
Costa Rica
Mutwiri, who started farming at 17 after his father gifted him 150 bushes, grows improved SL28, SL34, Ruiru 11 and Geisha varieties of coffee, which he said he got from a friend from Costa Rica.
"To have productive trees, I have to select the productive varieties which I know even from the size and shape of leaves," he said.
But he said there are three factors a farmer has to follow to get 100 kilos per tree.
"One is proper planting, good variety and canopy management. Canopy management is what a vast majority of farmers don't know, and it is what I am teaching them at my demonstration farms and others I am helping set up at the New KPCU and other places in coffee growing counties," he said.
Mutwiri, who is also a director of the New Kenya Planters Cooperative Union (New KPCU), said the average production per tree in Kenya is three kilos, way below the potential of 20 kgs and above.
"It rose to three kilos this year because it has always been two kilos in a stem. A farmer uses Sh50 to produce two kilos per stem. The average payment is Sh50 currently, which means the farmer is not getting anything," he stated.
Eager to learn, hundreds of farmers have been flocking to his farm at Nthimbiri and New KPCU Meru, where he has set up a demonstration farm.
Mutwiri said perhaps it is high time Kenyan coffee stopped being auctioned.
He said a minimum of Sh100 per kg would lift the spirits of farmers who he said are willing and able to produce more, assisting with better subsidies. "If that is done, we are going to produce coffee like never seen before. We will plant even inside the house!" he chuckled.
"Imagine farmers are toiling in their farms and struggling to get even, but the highest bidder buys our coffee. It is not a good system, it is what people are saying is "a cartel," and we want the government to streamline how it is traded. How can your coffee be auctioned to the highest bidder, yet you have loans to pay and offset costs?" he posed.
Mutwiri said for him to get 10 kgs, he would spend Sh270 on a single tree and Sh350 to produce 50kg from a single tree.
"For my trees yielding 100kg, I am spending Sh400 on one stem, which means I remain with Sh600 (profit). It means if I get below Sh100 per kg. I am not making much," he said.