Kenya's long way back to cotton farming pulls new investment

BT Cotton farmer Joseph Nyaga on his farm in Kanyuambora, Mbeere North, Embu county.  [File, Standard]

The two greatest impediments to the revitalisation of cotton as a valued cash crop in Kenya are the extension system at county level and lack of certified seed system, according to Agriculture and Food Authority (AFA).

Trained and tasked with guiding farmers throughout the process of growing cotton, most of the extension officers abscond and hapless farmers are left to make do with trial and error.

This complaint has been registered by farmers in previous interviews, most of whom are trying to rekindle their love story with the crop.

The journey back has been quite daunting.

The love-hate relationship with cotton began many years back, during colonial times. By the 90s, many farmers grew huge acres of cotton, having understood how to go about it from years of farming, and with a thriving market.

And then the brakes were slammed and it has never been the same since.

“In the 90s, the government embraced market-driven policies, and liberalisation, and therefore it withdrew from doing business,” an AFA official, who was not authorised to speak with the media but is well knowledgeable on the topic, told Sunday Standard.

“The government owned ginneries and textile mills. But here it was, expected to leave that to the private sector.”

The private sector was not prepared to undertake what the government had been doing until that point, and so the industry fell into a long lull.

This inactivity was snapped in 2006 when a private member Bill - designed to provide a benefit or exemption to an individual or group from the application of the law - was introduced to create the Cotton Development Authority (Coda), with mandate to promote and regulate cotton in the country.

The sector then started waking up, albeit amid myriad hurdles.

The first challenge was attracting a new crop of farmers. With the average age of a Kenyan farmer at over 60 years- in a country where the median population is 19.8 years and the average age of the consumer even lower - it was always going to be a mammoth task to convince the youthful population to grow a crop they barely understand.

“Therefore, the people we have been getting back are those who have a history of farming cotton, and most of them have become very old,” the AFA official says.

In a field trip to Embu earlier this year, farmers Daniel Magondu and Joseph Nyaga, who are among those growing Bt Cotton, spoke about their experiences with cotton from many years ago.

Their adoption of the genetically modified variety is a result of past experiences, and mainly frustrations, from conventional crops nearly 30 years ago.

Curiously, most of the farmers who are returning to cotton farming in were active years ago and were pushed out when markets crashed.  

“The younger farmers might not have as much interest until the crop proves to have good income,” the Embu farmers told us. It could be quite the task.

There is a bigger issue, however. With a rapid population increase, arable land has become highly fragmented in many places.

In 1995, for example, Kenya’s population was 26,878,347. In 2024, it is projected at 56,658,183 by World Population Review - over 100 per cent increase in under 30 years.

“We are, therefore, unlikely to have large-scale production of cotton. We need to develop technology that will optimise the yields on the land available,” AFA says.

Coda developed regulations, some of which were meant to protect investments. Assured of returns, the private sector came up and put in money in ginning and in textile mills.

“We have been getting a gradual increase in investments, especially at the ginning level,” AFA notes.

“When the revitalisation began in 2006, we had three ginneries: One in Makueni, another in Kitui, and another in Meru. We had one in Mwea that ceased to operate soon after.”

Now, there are six operational ginneries spread across the country. The credit for the increase is given to a good regulatory investment, among other incentives by the government.

Former President Uhuru Kenyatta, whose government was keen on driving the Big 4 Agenda of manufacturing, affordable housing, affordable healthcare and food security, and who religiously drove a ‘Buy Kenyan Build Kenya’ initiative, was famed for his trademark shirts minted at Rivatex.

Rivatex is a textile factory in Eldoret which was spinning about 2,000 bales of lint before 2006. Now they can spin 33,513 bales out of their installed capacity of 86,000 bales.

The activity has increased by over 15 times, with the remaining challenge being availability of raw materials.

In trying to keep up with agricultural biotechnological innovations, Kenya is now growing Bt cotton, which a number of farmers have already taken up.

While many note a marked improvement in quality of produce as compared to the conventional cotton, it remains expensive, at $26 per kilo (Sh3,354).

Many farmers struggle to afford that, but industry players say it could become bearable with subsidisation by the government.

Then comes the big challenge: poor agronomic practices.

“Once you have supported farmers to get the seed, they require knowledge. That mandate is with our county governments,” the AFA official says.

“The national government has been doing its bit to build the capacity of agricultural extension officers but they do not transfer to the farmers.

“There is nobody who is there to provide knowledge to the farmers throughout the process.”

The other challenge is that a large part of the country is arid and semi-arid. Only about 10 per cent of total land is arable.

“Our seeds are hybrid and infused with a gene. Hybrids like maize need high moisture standards. In these places, the moisture is depressed.

“Because of that, the yields are also depressed and so the farmers prefer their saved planting materials to the Bt cotton seed,” the AFA official says.

Where does he see the cotton growing project going in Kenya?

“We have good government buy-in today and even stakeholder support,” he says. “When we came in, we gave planting materials but now many more players, including county governments, offer great support in feed, pesticides, among others.

“We also have a roadmap; we need to crop 1,300 acres and we look forward to achieving something close to that.”

The government has a plan not only based on lint but also seed cake, worth about Sh5.6 billion per year, he says.

“We want to reduce seedcake import by 50 per cent in 2027, so we increase yields to 800 to 900 kilos per acre on 160,000 acres by then, from 260 kilos per acre on 30, 000 acres in 2023.”

AFA, whose mission is to develop, promote and regulate scheduled crops value chains for sustainable economic growth and transformation, catalyses areas that do not seem to make commercial sense like seed, and provides technical capacity to stakeholders in the value chain.

It also ensures correctness of contracts, monitors price discoveries, promotes cottage industries, and offers support for seed development with Kenya Agricultural and Livestock Research Organisation, among other duties.